Talking to people after the prom

by kaja.sturmfels

No question, the finale of season 3 was amazing. But I had the feeling things were left out. I had the feeling, Max needed to talk to people after the prom... Mostly family stuff (and of that mostly Max and Phoebe) but also Max-Colosso friendship and Mallison. English isn't my first language so if you find any mistakes, please report them to me so I can improve my skills! :)

Talking to Phoebe
„Hey, Pheebs, can I talk to you for one sec?"
Phoebe almost jumped out of her bed. She had been searching every Chirper-site that existed (or at least it had felt like that) to see if now that her family was famous maybe the cute guy from Splatburgers that might or might not be perfect for her had posted anything about the incidents. Like everyone from Hiddenville did. If that was the case she could hashtag along and write something like: „Think that was cool? Well, guess what, I'm not only Thundergirl, I'm also the girl from Splatburgers that has the same ring tone as you and the same favorite book, actually I still have that book, I mean, not only my copy but yours too because you forgot that at Splatburgers, and I just found out that I, although still liking him a lot as a friend, really don't want to get together again with my Ex, so wanna hang out some time?"
Yeah, probably that wouldn't have worked with the character limit. Man, she was talky around crushes even when she didn't talk!
But it seemed that he didn't have a Chirper account anyway. Or wasn't interested in superheroes. Which in either case would have made one thing that they didn't have in common after all.
Nevertheless she had been really into that search, sometimes getting lost in the descriptions of her heroic ways as well, so startled was a mild expression for her condition when Max strolled into the room like he owned it.
She was really proud not to send herself nor her phone to the floor. She didn't even scream.
„Woah, Max, did you ever hear of knocking? I," almost had a heart attack, „could have been naked!" Okay, maybe she shouted a bit. But shouting wasn't screaming and she saved the sentence.
„But you aren't." Max closed the door behind himself. „So you are going to keep your dignity and I'm going to keep my innocence." He smirked, although something seemed a bit different about it. Was he nervous? Well, he had come to her room so what he wanted had to be at least kind of important.
Phoebe put her phone aside and crossed her arms. „You don't have innocence."
„I do in this case." He grabbed her desk chair with his telekinesis and sat, not like normal people do but the other way round, arms on the back. „I have seen a lot of devious things in my life, most of them somewhere related to myself but horrors of this kind weren't part of it."
„Okay, if you're done insulting me, what is it you want to talk about?" She really didn't have a clue what it could be, given that he already apologized for, well, everything bad that he had ever done.
Max ran a hand through his hair. Wow, he really was nervous. Normally he'd never risk to ruin his hair. Of course he had showered and changed after the prom slash fight and his hair was still a bit wet so there wasn't much to ruin, but still. „Well, I wanted to talk to you about," he said, repeating her words, „something you said tonight."
Phoebe raised her eyebrows. „Really? I mean, I didn't say that much tonight. It was more like gymnastizing over the floor, protecting my friends and getting blasted by Dark Mayhem spheres." She had illustrated her words with wild hand gestures but let them sink as she saw the expression on Max's face. She couldn't describe it with a single adjective but it screamed „hear me out, this is really important to me".
„Yeah," his fingertips started to tap a rhythm on the chair that Phoebe was sure Wolfgang would have spectacularly failed on performing at the drums, „but before that part you said that you know I hate you." He took a deep breath. „I just wanted to say that I don't."
Phoebe shrugged and chuckled. „Well, would be bad if you still did." She reached out for her phone again.
„No, I mean, I never did."
She looked up. „Oh didn't you now?" The words came out more mockingly as planned. „May I remind you that you worked for Dark Mayhem and would have robbed my powers if I hadn't found out the plan?" Now that sounded plainly hurt. Maybe she actually was still hurt because of that. She blinked back a tear. Yup. Definitely still hurt because of that. „You know what, I think I may need some time to forgive you that." Max opened his mouth but she raised a hand to shush him. Not with telekinesis just with human social rules. To her surprise it worked. „I know what you'll say, that you did the right thing in the end because you realized that you care about us. And that is great. It really is." She gave him a little smile. But just a little one. „You turned things around although you already had gone so far and I can see that this must have taken a lot of strength. But my point is," her words fastened, „that you had to go this far to realize that and I keep thinking what would have happened if the plan had worked and you had stolen my powers so I'm extremely glad that things turned out as they did, nevertheless-"
„I wouldn't have done it."
He didn't say it in a loud way but kind of intensely.
For a moment Phoebe just sat there, trying to process what she had heard. Her brain did an awfully bad job at that and the part that wasn't even trying to do it worried that she'd turn into Billy, not understanding anything anymore. When she was finally (it probably had only been two seconds, it seemed much longer) able to speak again, her voice wasn't more than a whisper. „What?"
Max stared at his hands. „I mean, I can't be a hundred per cent sure but," he rose his head, „why do you think I sat on that wall in the driveway instead of running into your room with the orb in my hand? I was having second thoughts!" He furrowed his brows a little. „Well, actually I was having third or fourth thoughts. But my actual first thought when Dark Mayhem gave me the task," he looked her in the eyes, „literally was „no"! And my second one „can't I do anything else?"." He smiled a bit, not smirked, smiled, just as to ask „so what do you say?".
Phoebe didn't feel very qualified to answer this smile-question. She had absolutely no idea what to say. Had she wronged Max? Should she apologize for that? But no one could really blame her for thinking that he would turn against her, right? Oh no. Suddenly she had an idea what to say. An idea she didn't like at all. But now that it had crossed her mind she had to speak it out.
Phoebe stood up. Any teasing about her Channing Tatum pyjamas? No. It seemed Max had already made enough fun of that.
She took a deep breath. „Max, I'd love to believe that. But we both know that you're a liar."
All of a sudden he was standing as well, staring at her, eyes shiny. „You think I'd lie to you about that?"
Sometimes people who seem the toughest are the ones who are the most sensitive.
„No, I think you're lying to yourself. Remember when we fought against the Green Ghoul? Well, he was in my body at the time but I still heard everything as good old Phoebe. You said, you'd never turn against Dad." She extended her arms. „You turned against Dad."
„But only because you turned against me first!"
„I did what now?!"
„I was only thinking about taking your powers. You took mine!"
„That was an accident!"
„Well, you didn't seem very eager to give them back to me. And you told Mom and Dad."
„Yes, because I was so," she stopped to consider her choice of words and decided to go full truth, „hurt and disappointed that you were going to steal my powers!" Suddenly her rage was fainting. „Or at least I thought you were going to…"
„And as I already said I'm pretty sure I wasn't going to."
Phoebe couldn't prevent her hands from waving through the air. „But, so, you're saying, you actually weren't going to go full evil but then you did because I was mad at you? I mean, I was madder than I've ever been in my life but still…"
„No." He grabbed her hands so they finally stopped forming imaginary Thunderman the Rides. „I decided to go full evil because you lost faith in me. And I knew if you had lost faith in me, everyone else would too so this was the only way left. And as it was my dream to become a supervillain I didn't think it was the worst way."
Phoebe freed her hands and laughed a little shocked laugh. „You can't actually mean that I'm the person who has the most faith in you."
„You literally said to me once that you'd always seen good in me."
„Yes, I said that once. Mom's saying such things to you every day. She and Dad actually fell for it when you pretended to be good to get your cape and with that access to the superhero weapons."
„But did they fall for that because they actually believed it was true or because they wanted to believe it was true?"
„Okay, you are getting quite psychological now." Phoebe sat down on her bed again.
„Well, what can I say." Max reached out for the chair once more. „Colosso spent some time as a therapist. His plan was to plant evil in all humans but he actually had to learn a few things to get a practice and a few of the few things he passed on to me."
Phoebe tried to get the picture of a bunny asking someone how they felt out of her head reminding herself that Colosso had been human once. „Go on then."
„Mom and Dad always wanted me to be good because otherwise that would mean they failed as parents. You wanted me to be good because you were convinced that this was the true me." He stopped, glaring at Phoebe from the side. „You did think that way, right, because if not that would be awkward now."
„I," she put a curl back behind her ear, „I never thought about it with all those details but I think you're right… I mean, of course I also wanted you to be good so you'd stop pranking me," she interrupted herself when she saw her brother grinning, „you are not going to stop pranking me now that you're good, are you?"
„No."
Phoebe sighed. „I guess I knew that already." She paused to make an impressed face. „Wow, that means I really wanted you to be good because I wanted you to be yourself, I'm an even better hero than I thought!"
„Okay, stop gloating."
„And I was right about you deep down being good all the time, I'm amazing!"
„Yeah, yeah, you're great, could we now focus again?"
„Or am I that great?" Phoebe put a finger to her chin. „I think I also wanted you to be good because I didn't want to lose you. Sweet cheese, I just said that out loud."
Max smiled again. A sweet smile this time. Phoebe had seen it quite often already but couldn't remember an occasion where it had been meant for her. „That's still a pretty good reason."
„But you realize that Mom and Dad probably had those reasons too?"
„Probably. But it's slightly more impressive without the „we're ashamed of our son because he's ruining the family's reputation"-thing added to the mix."
Phoebe nodded slowly, then started grinning. „So I was like the angel holding the spark of your inner good in my hands. And you wanted to cling on to that cause deep down you always knew you had a heart that shouldn't be crushed by becoming a supervillain."
Max looked at her like she had just started to talk Japanese. Which she was actually able to do, at least a bit, she had started to take online lessons. „Angels, inner sparks and crushed hearts, you should really start forgetting everything you heard in that Kentucky-play."
„Ooh, I still know every line from that by heart!"
„Yeah, please don't start reciting."
That set off a carousel of thoughts in Phoebe's mind: Why not? I rocked that play! I know I'm not such a good actress as Allison but still - okay, I think he wants to say something important maybe I really shouldn't start reciting.
„Anyway, poetic language aside, I think you're right. Although I never would have admitted it at the time, your faith meant a lot to me. Hello," he raised his eyebrows and continued in a lower voice, „I came to rescue a stink plant to restore it."
Phoebe laughed. „You shouldn't talk in such a derogatory way about that stink plant when Allison is around." It was almost frightening how well she could picture the girl putting on boxing gloves and attacking Max while howling „you hurt the feelings of the stink plant!". But after a second of enjoying that image her smile faded. „Wait, was this the only reason you came to rescue that plant?"
Max rolled his eyes. His voice sounded serious enough when he spoke though. „No, I also came because I care about you and I didn't want to lose you. Sweet cheese I just said that out loud."
„Good." Phoebe nodded. „But wait. If you managed to restore my faith then, why didn't you try to do the same thing after I took your powers?"
„Seriously, you're asking that?"
„Yeah, I guess no one would have believed you."
„I kinda started to tell Mom and Dad, absolutely didn't work. Also this time I was sure you didn't see good in me anymore. I didn't think there was anything left to save. With that plant I did."
Phoebe blew out air, causing a „pfuh"-Sound. „Okay, well, I definitely believe you now that you wouldn't have used the orb on me." She wrinkled her brows. „But if my faith really was that important to you, I guess I should take my share of the blame for everything that happened then."
„Yeah, you could do that oooooor you could just take the credit for saving everything and everyone."
Not such a bad idea. And not an totally unfounded one. „Well, I guess I was the one who convinced you that you didn't really want to go through with Dark Mayhem's plan."
„And you know why?"
„Because I had a pretty good point?"
„No! I mean, yes, but also," his voice sounded untypically warm, „cause in that moment you showed me that you actually never had lost faith in me. And that's why I believed you that I still have that option. That everyone would take me back. So, thank you for that."
Phoebe chuckled nervously. „Yeah, let's see it that way and not as a last desperate attempt I didn't think was going to work at all."
„Well, if you were absolutely sure it wouldn't work, why make a last attempt?"
„Okay, you got a point there. Man, when did you get that smart?"
„What are you talking about, I've always been the smart twin- ouch!"
Phoebe grinned and ordered the pillow she had thrown at Max back to her hands with her telekinesis. She gazed at it for a moment then put it aside and looked up again. „So… What now?"
Max stood up. „Well, I thought I'd just go back to my room."
„What, you call it a room now, not your lair anymore?" Had he finally grown up?
„Yeah, you're right, I should still call it my lair, I mean, it can be my lair without me doing evil stuff there."
Okay, not grown up. Although he had chosen the good side, that was worth something. Who was she kidding, it was worth a lot more than being grown up. But talking about not growing up: „What I meant with my question was, are we going to hug now, like Nora and Billy do or-"
Max made a disgusted face. „Bah, absolutely not!"
„Alright, got it-"
„I'd never hug you!"
„Fine! I just wanted to-"
„Okay, maybe I would, but for a real hug, not a „our siblings forced us to go on Thunderman the Ride"-hug there had to happen a lot more than today. Like you lying on the floor dying or something like that."
That was almost a bit too honest for Phoebe's taste. „You know that could have happened today."
Max had already stretched his hand to reach the doorknob but turned a last time. Slightly smiling again, maybe she should take a picture. „Glad it didn't. Cause, you know, I don't hate you and so on." The corners of his mouth went down, his forefinger went up. „But don't think I'll ever talk that openly about my feelings again! That was a one time thing to make some points clear!"
And he was back being the old Max. Well, the old Max less evil plans to take over the world. No complaints from her. More Max, more to tease. „But didn't that feel good?" she asked in her sweetest voice.
„Oh, shut up and just go to bed!"
„Goodnight!" She thought for a second, then added: „I don't hate you either."

Talking to the kids
„Why are you coming out of Phoebe's room smiling?"
Max made a little jump. „Why do you have to show up all of a sudden all of the time?!"
Chloe looked at him like he just had said the dumbest thing in the world. „Cause I can teleport, baby!"
Okay, maybe that had been a dumb question. But to be fair she only could teleport again because the first thing Max had done when they came home, even before taking a shower, had been repairing the orb (with proper equipment this time) and returning their normal powers to everyone. And all that stress just because his father hadn't stop complaining about lightning coming out of weird places, whatever that was supposed to mean. Not that Max wanted to know.
„Now you answer my question!"
„Well," Max tried to figure out a convincing lie but if Chloe asked Phoebe what they talked about to double check, and as she had learned fast how things worked at the Thunderman's she'd do that, she'd find out anyway. So he supposed if he had been honest with one sister he could as well be honest with another one. „I told her something she deserved to know and I thanked her for something she deserved my thanks for."
„Ah." Chloe nodded an understanding nod that once upon a time had been reserved for people ten years older than her, „so you did the right thing and now you're feeling good."
Max scratched his neck. „I guess, that's a way to put it?"
„I told you it's like that!"
In fact she had, one of the many times Max had tried to turn her evil. She had always been unbelievably uninterested in it and just teleported away when she got bored. Except of course for when she had been a baby and he had read her evil stories via her baby phone - but turned out that only worked with people who were already able to understand words.
„You have also told me that bakers should rule the world." To be exact she had told him a different thing every time before she plopped away so „doing the right thing feels good" hadn't exactly stuck out.
„Cause they should! They make cakes, baby!"
„Well, if you wanna start a petition, Dad would be the first to sign it. Now, can I-" he pointed towards the stairs.
„No. I have to do something first."
Max raised his eyebrows. „And what's that?"
„Hug you cause you decided to help us!"
Damn it, that was kinda heart warming. But hey, he was a superhero now, he was officially allowed to find things heart warming. Although he still was Chloe's big brother and as Billy already treated her the nice way it was kinda his job to show her the other side of big brothering. Besides… „You know, you're not really hugging me, you're hugging my legs." He lifted her up so she could put her arms around his neck. „Now you're hugging me." He could continue to show her the other side of big brothering tomorrow, couldn't he?
Too bad Chloe decided to show him the other side of little sistering just tonight. She disappeared, reappeared again - „And now I'm kicking you, baby!"
„Ouch!" Max rubbed his throbbing shin. „What was that for?!"
„Being evil, working for the scary mask guy, taking our powers, locking us in our house-"
„Okay, okay, I get it!"
„I heard screaming, what's happening here?" Nora sounded way too excited for his taste. She and Billy just came out of the bathroom, she grinning, he looking confused as always.
„Our sweet little sis," his leg still hurt, „just hugged me for doing the right thing and kicked me for doing the wrong thing."
„Wrong things," Chloe corrected. Max rolled his eyes. Well, he probably should have seen it coming that his family wouldn't let his evil past in the past once he turned good. Although just talking about it was way better than making his bones explode.
„Awesome! We wanna do that too. I'll do the lasering!" Nora's smile was devious. Here we go again.
„I'll do the hugging!" Billy finally seemed to have understood something. Or not, as he supersped to Max and then just sped away again.
Max furrowed his brows. „What was that?"
Billy made an expression that probably was meant to be proud but actually looked like someone had froze him mid yawn. „A speed hug! They're my specialty."
„And we all know what my specialty is…" Oh no. It zapped.
„Argh! Nora! That was the exact same spot Chloe already hit! Have you seen me rubbing it and aimed there on purpose?!"
„Of course!" After a moment Max' siblings burst out laughing at him. He made a „hmpf"-sound. But he didn't manage to be really mad at them. Not tonight.

Talking to parents
„Hey, Max, care to help us fix the hole we had to blow through the wall because of you?"
Max needed a moment longer than usual to answer. Not because his father sounded particularly mad, slightly annoyed rather described it, but because he had to think of what Dark Mayhem could have done to his family without that hole. The idea made his stomach twist. How had he been able to convince himself that he didn't care about his family all those years? Probably due to some weird psychological reasons he wouldn't ask Colosso about later as the bunny wouldn't stop prattling about his dark diary having made him talking more openly about his feelings. Well, he had talked quite openly to Phoebe tonight but that was definitely not because of his evil chronicle!
All that thoughts jumped through Max' mind before he finally managed a „no, not really, but I could freeze it for the night".
His mother raised her eyebrows. „How about you freeze it for tonight so we can all finally go to bed and you help us fix it tomorrow?"
Max rolled his eyes. „Fine." He crossed the living room. „Step aside." Actually he had thought of freezing the hole and his parents, then thaw his parents again but he supposed that this kind of joke would have come a bit early as he had made the switch from really evil too good just a few hours ago.
The new icy window sparkling behind him, Max turned to leave but his father called him back again. „Just one more thing."
„Please don't say that you want to hug then punch me for everything. The little ones already hugged, kicked and zapped me," his leg hurt again if he just thought about it, „and I'm not sure I'd survive that with your powers."
„We could use my powers!" Electricity crackled.
„Not better, Mom!"
She laughed. „Just joking! But we could definitely do the hugging."
So Max endured a parental hug - to be fair, it was actually a pretty good hug. Except for his mother passing some charge onto him and his father squeezing a bit to hard.
„Okay, guys, that's enough." Max freed himself. „What was that thing of yours, Dad?"
„Oh, right." He cleared his throat. „I just wanted, well, about what I said today, that you're no longer our son…"
Max' heart beat faster. He chuckled nervously. „I, I hope you take that back, right?"
„What, yes, of course I take that back." Max' tensed muscles relaxed again. What had he been afraid of anyway? It was like he felt everything more intensely since he had turned against the dark side. „But I also regret that I said it in the first place. I should have trusted you more."
Max coughed. „Uhm, no, Dad. I left you guys powerless, froze every door in this house and disconnected the Thundermonitor so you couldn't use the heat mode to escape, I'd say you were pretty right to not trust me."
„Okay, I'm a bit confused now-"
Max would have loved to cut the conversation at this point but didn't know how. Luckily his mother did it for him. „You know what?" Although she could have done it with a little less gesticulation. Max took a step back as her hands started to wave through the air right in front of his face. „Let's just be happy that nobody got killed, we all have our powers back and-"
„We can finally talk about Max to other superhero parents!" How giggly they get. Like they were eight years old and just had won tickets to an amusement park. It was almost sweet. Almost.
„Um, and of course we're glad you didn't turn into a supervillain because we love you and supervillains never get happy - could you just pretend we said that the other way round?"
Max raised his eyebrows at his mother. „No," he said slowly, „cause you didn't." He shrugged and smiled. „But that's okay. Someone else did." Well, not exactly say it but show it. „Good night!"
His parents exchanged looks. „Good night…"
Max was already opening the door to his slide, when his mother called out for him a last time. „We know it's Phoebe, Max."
„We do? Barb, have you looked at our twins the last, well, their entire life? They can't stand each other!"
„Yeah, Mom!" Max scoffed. „Phoebe? Don't be ridiculous!"
With that, he got on his slide. It seemed his mother was smarter than he had thought.

Talking to Colosso
The bunny was waiting on Max' desk, ears twitching. „So. Are you now staying here or are you going to run up and down getting clothes and bringing tools again?"
Max yawned. „No, I'm staying now." The tiredness in his face changed to disgust. „Although this place still looks like a store for ugly furniture vomited its guts out in here. But as I can't see that in the dark, I suppose I'll survive the night." He extended his arm to flip the light switch with his telekinesis but couldn't convince himself to go through with it. His arm sank down again. He sat on the bed and cleared his throat. „Before I go to sleep: What do you think about, well, everything?"
„About you becoming good? I think it's an incredible waste of talent and I'm horrified that hanging out with you will now get extremely boring."
That didn't sound as bad as he'd expected. At least Colosso was still going to hang out with him. Nevertheless… „Boring? Things will never get boring with me!"
„Oh really? So we'll still develop plans to take over the world?"
„No."
„Steal things?"
„No."
„Pulverize Pluto?" Actually Pluto had been pulverized by villains so often that no supe could remember who had destroyed the first one but the Hero League made excellent replicas so also no one really cared.
„No," Max decided to take the initiative before Colosso could list a hundred more fun things they couldn't do anymore, „but we can still dance and play everything can be used as a weapon," they had renamed the game once Colosso had pointed out that not only a pineapple but also a paper clip and even a toothbrush made excellent weapons if you only knew how to use them, „and watch wrestling and give or in my case listen to those awful fashion lectures-"
„What, you think my fashion lectures are awful?!"
Damn it. „Yes, but I-"
„Well if that's what you think, did I already mention that I hate it when you talk about Allison?"
„Only about a hundred times."
„Oh, okay, um, there are also other things that aren't so great about you!"
„And those are?"
„Um, ah, for example, your, your swoosh!"
Max' hands rose to his hair. „My swoosh?" Why does my voice always get one octave higher when someone disapproves my hair? „Wait." His hands lowered again, just as his voice. „You invented my swoosh."
„Um."
„Anyway, what I was going to say before you interrupted me was that I endure your lectures because we're friends. I mean," he didn't dare to look at the bunny, „if we are still friends."
For a moment, Colosso remained silent and Max pressed his hands on his laps so firmly that he probably could have used his telekinesis to move his bones. He hadn't had a lot of time tonight to think about the bunny. Of course he had seen him in the car and his family had told him about Colosso using explosives in a different way than usual (namely saving the Thundermans instead of annoying them) but it wasn't until he came down to his lair with the hope to stay there for the next hours when he really explored the thought of what Colosso would say about his change. Becoming good had been the step he had to take to keep his family, his girlfriend, Gideon, Wolfgang and Oyster - but what about his best friend? „I already have it all," yeah, not anymore if Colosso hated him now!
To make the situation even worse, two parts of his brain, called „me" and „looking at myself as if I weren't me" or something like that, decided to start an enervating inner dialog: Yo, chill out, Max, he has already said that he still wants to hang out with you. - But that was before I insulted his fashion lectures! - You've already insulted him a bazillion times and nothing happened to your friendship. - Now that was before I turned good! - You're still bros, yo. - Then why is it taking him so long to answer?!
Not only that „looking at myself as if I weren't me" talked in a weird slang for some reason but also its arguments did nothing to calm him down.
Luckily, Colosso's argument, as he finally spoke, did a lot better job at that. „So, you still wanna be friends with me although I'm a villain?"
Max blinked. „Of course I do! So, you still wanna be friends with me although I'm a hero now?"
„Of course I do! You in boring is much better than no you at all!"
A grin conquered the fields of Max's cheeks. „Great! Oh, and by the way, thanks for saving my family."
„I only did that because I had to in order to save my own butt! Dark Mayhem wanted to-"
„Yeah, yeah, whatever, just remember that I don't want them to get killed. And having said that, I can finally go to bed." He kicked his shoes to the side, let himself fall on the bed and turned the light switch.
„Wait, how do I get to my cage now? I can't see a thing! And aren't we going to hug after we just restored our friendship?"
Max turned the light back on. „There you go, hurry up, I'm really tired, and no, we're not going to hug, why does everyone want to hug me tonight?"
Colosso jumped on Max's bed. „Because."
Max rolled his eyes. Well, at least Colosso was fluffy, not like Phoebe who would have probably cut him in half with her elbows if they had tried a hug. „Okay, fine. As long as you don't scratch me afterwards."

Talking to Allison
„Why are you looking at me this way, are you going to kick'n'kiss me now?" Max would have been more than fine with the kissing part. The slide ride down to his lair, his arms around Allison's waist, his nose on her neck, had already sent little sparks down his spine. The kicking part on the other hand would have absolutely destroyed his poor muscles which had started whining a few hours ago that carrying furniture was neither in the job description for supervillains, nor superheros. Of course it wouldn't have been that exhausting if his family had helped him to change his lair back into something that deserved the name. But after he had actually kept his word this morning and helped fixing the hole in the wall (no one had been more surprised about that than himself, he really hoped he'd get back to his old dishonesty in a few days - turning into a superhero didn't mean you had to turn all phoeby, did it?) and asked for some help in return, suddenly everyone had been extremely busy talking to journalists and signing stuff for hero league members.
To be fair, the house really was full of people who wanted something from the Thundermans. Max and Allison hadn't been able to exchange more than a „hi" when they met at the porch, the rest had been „excuse us", „sorry" and „man, get down off that immediately, that's the door to my room!".
Allison furrowed her brows. „Am I going to what?"
„Kick and kiss me," Max repeated more slowly. „My siblings hugged and kicked me yesterday for becoming good and having been evil and I figured you might wanna do the same thing but I hoped you'd kick me first and kiss me afterwards cause that would be a much better order."
Allison sat down at Max's desk chair. „Well, I'd never kick you." Now that was a relief. Not only because his whole body already hurt, Allison was also quite strong and she would for sure have managed to hit the exact same spot that his sisters already kick-lasered. „I'd slap you," Allison continued. Yeah. Whatever. At least it wasn't very probable she would slap his leg. „No, wait, that could ruin your face, I'd rather punch you in the stomach. Anyway, I'd use my hands, I only kick people I consider inferior."
Max sank down on his bed. „Mh-hm. I'm sure it'll lessen the pain a lot that you consider me as equal."
Allison grinned. „Come on, so far I'm not even sure I'm going to do anything, first you have to answer a few questions, we had no chance to talk yet." That was true. The prom night they had agreed they'd talk the next day, today they had just texted a bit to arrange when Allison should come over and when they finally got into Max's lair he had to throw Colosso out of the window first, so they could have some private time. Well, he hadn't exactly thrown Colosso, just put him outside, which had given the bunny rich opportunity to insult Allison. He really should have gotten Colosso out of the way earlier but he had just managed to bring the rest of his stuff back down when the Thundermonitor announced that Allison was approaching. (Or actually it had announced that Max's favorite human being was approaching as he had programmed the announcement.)
„Okay." Max cleared his throat. „What do you wanna know?"
„First - why on Earth do you have a talking bunny?!"
Max let out a little sigh, relieved that the first question was an easy one. „Oh, that's a supervillain my Dad turned into a bunny a few years ago. His name's Dr. Colosso and the funny thing is that he is the one who invented the animalizer so my Dad used his own gadget against him." And Max would have loved to use the animalizer against Colosso again today, to turn him human so he could help with his room, but there had been people in the kitchen all the time, so no chance to get to the gadget.
„So is he the reason you wanted to become a supervillain?"
And here we go with the harder questions. „No, I already wanted that since I was five years old."
Allison's eyes got wide. „Wait, was that your not a phase-thing?!"
Max nodded. „Yup." Of course Allison had asked him several times what his thing was and he had told her that it would only work if it remained a secret but once he was ready to fulfill his plans she would see what it was and hopefully participate in it.
„And what was your big plan exactly? What would you have done as a supervillain?" Max flinched at the disgusted tone of her voice.
„Taken over the world?" He hated it when he sounded like an insecure child. „Look," he continued, trying to give his words a convincing ring, „it would have been pretty great for you too. You would have been my dark empress and could have just forced people to build wind power stations and stop eating meat to fight climate change!"
„Hm." Allison wrinkled her nose. „Okay, I admit, I would have liked that. But I'm not sure if I would have liked you anymore. I mean, you as the ruler of the world who can do anything he wants? That's like your pranking but a thousand times worse."
„Well." Max extended his arms and smiled. „Perfect then that I'll never become ruler of the world because I'm a superhero now."
Allison raised her eyebrows. „I think you have to save a few more things before you can call yourself a superhero. Although I'm definitely glad you decided to save Hiddenville from Dark Mayhem. He would have been an even more terrible ruler than you - why did you work for him anyway if you wanted to take over the world yourself?"
Max figured that „because he was my idol" wasn't the appropriate answer. „Because you have to make yourself a name in the villain world before you can do any big things! You have to get connections, you have to learn the insider tricks, and so on. Although I worked parallel on a plan that would have catapulted me on the world throne right away." He smiled dreamily. It really had been a fantastic plan, only a few more details and 33 tons of nitroglycerin had missed to complete it- He gulped at Allison's expression. „Um, not that I'll think about that anymore, now that my evil phase-" He stopped for a moment, puzzled that he had used the word „phase" himself. „I guess, it actually was a phase in my case… But I still totally get that you wanting to save the world isn't one. Hey, you know, we are going to do the same thing now! Just in different ways."
„Yeah, about that ways," Allison sounded kinda positively excited now, „what are your powers exactly?"
Max grinned. It seemed he was off the hook! He jumped to his feet and flicked his inner salesman-switch to „on". „That's by far the best question you had today! My powers are pretty impressive. I have… freeze breath!" He put his head back and froze the ceiling. „Heat breath!" He thawed it again. „And then," his Thundersense started to tingle. He stopped Allison's fist mid-air with his telekinesis, then caught her with his hands as she lost her balance. „TK," he concluded, salesman-switch turned off again, staring at his girlfriend's puzzled face.
„How did you know that I was going to hit you? You weren't looking!"
„It's called Thundersense. I can sense the danger. What I can't sense is the reason why you wanted to hit me!"
„Because you didn't tell me anything earlier! You didn't trust me!"
„We weren't allowed to tell anyone about our powers!"
„Then why did Cherry brag along all the time yesterday night that she knew everything already?"
„Because Phoebe had to tell her everything, it was, well, never mind what exactly happened, but it was just like the prom night only that the only non-supe around was Cherry."
„Oh." Allison's anger seemed gone as quickly as it had come. Nothing unusual for her. „Sorry, then, I guess? Um, are you going to let my arms go now or…?"
Max indeed still held her arms from catching her. „Do you really want me to?"
„Maybe not," Allison whispered and kissed him.
Between kisses Max realized that he loved Allison. Just as he loved his family. Well, obviously it was a different kind of love but love nevertheless. He just wasn't ready to say it yet.