Hey, it's part 5!
~shout out character for TheFallenGirl enclosed.
"No wonder you never get home," the dark haired man complained surveying the area. His English was tinted with a Japanese accent, barely noticeable to most people.
"I do, just a bit later than I'm supposed to," the shorted girl said rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly. Unlike her male companion her English was perfectly pronounced for someone of English birth.
"Attention span of a genin. Some things never change Max," Itachi said with a grin, stepping away from her as she swung her fist at his ribs. The two of them had turned up in what seemed to be a park. Max had voiced her irritation at the lack of kiddy park bits like a zip wire or swings earlier causing Itachi to mock her childishness.
"I resent that comment!"
The two of them were interrupted from their bickering by a man in a brightly coloured costume fighting someone in a dark coloured costume.
"Ok. This is a bit weird," Max admitted. She turned back to the mirror behind her and pointed a device at it turning it off so it appeared as just a frame. They then returned to casually watching the fight.
"So what is that thing and where are we?" Itachi asked, he thought he should at least know something about this just in case.
"It's called a quantum mirror, it's a portal between dimensions. As for where we are? As I said earlier, a crappy excuse for a park." Itachi raised an eyebrow. This was far less surprising that it should have been.
"You wanted to go to your home dimension?" Max shook her head furiously.
"The chance of me finding my own dimension is astronomical, that even if this thing's attached to it. Dimensional theory states an infinite amount of dimensions, for every choice made one dimension follows each choice. Don't think too much into it. Besides, I wouldn't want to go back if I had the choice."
They continued to watch the fight, it only just was getting interesting as one of them was shooting black energy bolts at the other. Itachi shot a questioning look at her.
"Superhero's by my guess," Max said shrugging slightly at the new information. Another person approached from behind them, holding something bizarre.
"Either of you two got a light?" the out of breath man asked. Max held out an empty hand and clicked her fingers allowing a single flame to erupt from the tip of her thumb like a lighter. The man lit a piece of string on the device then ran towards the fight.
"Was getting out a lighter really too much trouble?" Itachi chuckled ruffling Max's hair much to her irritation. "So do you think this is another of your fiction books in real life?"
"There were many fictional superhero universes, this could be any of them or all of them," Max admitted, her thoughts listing the ones she knew.
The fight finally drew to an end, the dark clothed man being subdued by the brighter coloured men. "We should probably leave now." Max grabbed Itachi's hand and dashed off, but their way was blocked by the two brightly coloured men who appeared in front of them.
"Shouldn't you two be in school?" the guy who seemed to be the hero in this situation asked trying to look jovial and non threatening, all he succeeded in doing was reminding the young woman of a teacher she'd once had at a certain magical school.
"Nope."
"I haven't seen either of you around, nor graduating from Sky High, so I smell a fib." Again with the creepy smile. Max twitched a bit at it but then her eyes lit up when she realised what had just been said.
"Sky High! Right, that makes some sense," Max exclaimed triumphantly, gaining weird looks for everyone. "I'm currently on a 'don't ask' policy. So don't ask."
"You two need to come with me to Sky High so we can get this all sorted out."
"What makes you think we have super powers?" Max asked suspiciously, she did not want to go to school again, not willingly, they may think she wants to be there.
"You lit your thumb like it was a lighter, your friend didn't seem too surprised so I can only assume he was used to it and has his own power."
"Told you that you should have used a lighter." Itachi muttered.
"Hind sight is 20/20. My lighter is also a bit broken, I may have somehow melted it." Itachi couldn't help but facepalm, it took a special person to do something like that.
The world disappeared in a swirl of colour, focusing seconds later to show they were somewhere completely different from the park. The shinobi reacted, knocking out the two brightly coloured men who had somehow brought them there. After a quick exploration they found they were floating above the ground. Escape looked to be interesting but they decided to wait for the two men to wake up.
Not before adjusting their positions into slightly more risqué poses not unlike those found it Jiraiya's books.
"Follow me and we can get this mess sorted out." Man one said, trying to ignore how he had woken up. Max rolled her eyes.
"Not only no, but hell no. Adios" she said and ran. Itachi was baffled, he knew Max could run faster than that. Then she disappeared from sight, falling below the ground. That's when Itachi realised what she was doing. Max always one for the theatrics.
"We need to get a flyer here now, a girl's just fallen over the edge!" Guy two panicked. Both men ran towards the building. There was a pop behind Itachi which just cause him to shake his head sighing.
"That was totally worth it," Max said with a shit-eating grin, completely unfazed by the fact she had been freefalling over the side of the school until she had bothered apparating back.
"So where are we?" Itachi asked, looking at the building critically, why was this place floating?
"Sky High, school for superheroes and hero support, floating over Maxville." Itachi could read what Max was thinking: 'Heh, Maxville.'
"Interesting plot?"
"I guess. Screwing with these people would be funnier though," Max shrugged, the grin never faltering.
Both guys returned with a girl and an older woman but stopped just short of them with confused looks.
"But… You… Falling… I saw it with my own eyes!" the man gibbered. Max raised an eyebrow at the finger being pointed in her direction.
"This is a school for superheroes, what the hell did you expect?" she deadpanned. The woman raised a stern eyebrow.
"Mind your language," the woman reprimanded. Max groaned, this woman screamed 'teacher'.
"Am I not allowed to use 'hell'? What about 'bloody'?" Max asked innocently. "Or would you prefer this?" she said in Japanese. "I could swear like a sailor if you would prefer."
"Both of you follow me. I will not allow powered teenagers to go around without structure in their life. While it's not normal without the proper forms you both will attend here until things can be sorted out." Max put a hand on Itachi's shoulder when he began to object, he wasn't actually a teenager but Max wanted to screw with these people so he wisely stayed quiet, content to watch this play out until Max screwed up.
"As you said, we're teenagers, why should we? What are the benefits of going to this school?" Max demanded.
"You will learn to control your powers-"
"Already can."
"-In a practical situation-"
"Also can do."
"You will be assigned as either hero or hero support and paired up accordingly. Then you will be assigned a precinct to look after," the woman finished. Max's jaw was hanging slightly she could not quite believe what she had just been told.
"I think words have just failed me. I have no choice in this? What if I want to be a villain? Do you teach classes for that? What about if I want to be a normal fecking person? A civilian who goes to normal school. I demand the choice."
"You have a power, your duty is to-"
"My duty is to say hell no. This place is ridiculous. I refuse to be treated like a bloody child"
"Let's go inside and discuss this like mature adults then instead of arguing on the driveway." Max gave a forced smile to hide her grin, that grin would have told the woman that Max was planning something.
"Since we're acting like adults maybe we should introduce our selves. I am Max this is Itachi, we travel."
"I am Principal Powers, I'm in charge of this school, shall we go now?"
Max and Itachi followed dutifully, hanging back far enough to speak with out being heard.
"What are you planning now?"
"Me? Planning something? I would never plan to get a school full of superheroes-in-training stoned, that would be irresponsible of me." Her tone didn't fool him but he did love the way her face lit up with the excitement of pulling a prank.
It wasn't hard to set up. Itachi didn't know where Max got the weed but he doubted he would get a straight answer if he asked.
They wandered around, 'trying' to find the gym. Apparently they needed to go through power placement, and for some reason Principal Powers wanted it to be a public spectacle but made the mistake of letting them out of her sight.
Everything was set up, the bases were loaded as Max and Itachi sat on the steps just outside the building. Max had the detonator in her hand and took much delight in pressing the button which set the weed burning under the floorboards in the gym.
The kids must have been sheltered, not recognising the smell, either that or weed didn't exist in this world. One kid wasn't affected, Max had gone to answer the call of nature and found a girl hiding out in the bathrooms, sitting on the lid of a toilet, writing something. The girl had noticed Max, instinctively looking up but quickly lowering her gaze putting her cap down to obscure her face more.
"Is this really the best place to write? I mean I know you can get ideas in the weirdest places, but here?" Max asked.
"It's quiet here. Everyone wants to see the new kids." The girl didn't even try to look at her, that probably why the girl didn't know she was the new kid.
"They'll be waiting a while, unless they all fit in here." That surprised the girl who looked up in shock. For a few seconds they held eye contact before they both averted their gazes, the girl giving out a low pained cry while Max suppressed hers only a muttered curse showed she felt anything.
"I'm really sorry, I try not to look at people."
"Is that your power, giving people headaches by eye contact?" The pounding in her head was getting worse and by the look in the girls eye it wasn't much better for her.
"Not quite, you looked a lot different when you were younger." The girl really didn't know how else to start explaining it.
"What." Max's voice was flat and dangerous. She really didn't like the implications.
"When I look someone in the eyes, their memories start copying to my mind. I only saw the first few years of yours. I'm really sorry." Max felt a flash of pity, she herself used a lot of eye contact and to not be able too would be very painful.
"Do you have no way of stopping it?"
"No one's really tried." Now the girl seemed really miserable. Max pinched the bridge of her nose, she was trying not too be too mean to people. The headache wasn't helping though.
"When you say the first few years you mean baby right?" The girl nodded. "So what happened, I mean my parents always seemed a bit cold to me?" Max asked, she'd always wanted to know what she was like as a child but her parents had refused to tell her anything.
"Do you mean with your birth parents or adoptive?" Max only just restrained her self from looking the girl in the eye out of shock. Instinct told her to look into the girls eyes to see if there was any hint of a lie but she stopped herself. Even without seeing her eyes Max could see the girl was telling the truth.
That explained a lot.
"You didn't know you were adopted." There was no question, just the fact.
"I had no idea," Max whispered, she was still trying to process the information. "Why?" The girl looked a bit shocked, most people hated her for seeing their memories, she obliged though, trying to get some sense out of the memories she'd acquired.
"You were born in America, don't know exactly where, I think your birth parents were arguing over you. Your mother took you to England. One day she went out and didn't come back, you were still very young when you were adopted by the couple next door despite the fact they already had kids of their own. Are you ok?" The girl noticed Max had perched herself on one the sinks her knees drawn up to her chest. The girl had no idea how Max was balanced but this was a school for super heroes so she let it slide.
"I'm fine, I've had bigger changes to my life. Though at least I knew about them, eventually. I should go now." Max paused for a second, looking at the girl. "If I were you I'd avoid the gym for a while. Actually you know what, screw it, ditch school, no ones going to be in their right mind anyway." Max jumped of the sink and grabbed the girl's hand dragging her out of the bathroom.
"You picked up another random kid?" Itachi asked as the two girls exited the building.
"Nooooo…" Max said with an innocent smile.
"What is her name?"
"Uh. Jeffrey?"
"I'm Melanie, Jeffery isn't even a girls name." Melanie was really wondering about Max.
"I knew that!"
Louise didn't often go to the same bar twice in one night.
For once she'd gotten off work early, gone for a drink with some work mates, then gone home, content to get some sleep. It would have been easier had her bed been empty.
"I did not need to see that Laura! What is wrong with you? You have your own room to do that in, Sasuke you have your own apartment!"
Louise returned to the bar. Drinking to try to bleach her mind of those images.
She would later burn her bed.
Review please.
This part only has a planned 10 chapters before Part six.
Like part 3 this is pretty stand aloneish.
