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Reestablishing Bonds, chapter 1
Conner woke up, feeling relaxed. The school year was finally over. That didn't mean that he was free of responsibilities though; the Kents were going to have him help out at the store. He saw an envelope on Max's cot. He picked it up and opened it.
'I'm going to be gone for a little while. – Max'
Conner brought the letter down to show the Kents. He expected this, but he was starting to miss Max already.
Match landed on a small island off the coast of Australia. He had checked on the schedule of all the surveillance satellites and made his way here when there weren't any to track his movements. He expected that Superman, among others, would not accept his desire for solitude and try to find him.
Even though it was winter in the southern hemisphere, the island was still temperate. The Contessa had set up a safe house here that no one else knew about. Match had decided that he was going to restore it and have a place to get away from everything.
He spent a few hours getting the generator working. Then, he checked all the equipment in the house and cleaned everything. There were a few food supplies left that were still good, and when he was hungry, he ate some of those.
He washed himself and then slept, tired from all the activity.
As Conner though, Clark didn't take Max's disappearance well. He checked with the JLA to see if they could track him. They couldn't. From comments that Clark made, this seemed to really irritate Batman and Oracle.
Conner took Max's disappearance in stride. He was confident that Max would return when he was ready. In the meantime, Conner was enjoying having a room to himself. He didn't mind sharing the room, but it was nice to not have Max automatically put away anything that Conner left on his desk or on the floor.
Conner wondered what Max was doing and smiled. He bet that it involved some sort of cleaning.
Max was fixing the room, not believing how damaged it was. Fortunately, the Contessa didn't want anyone to have to come to the island and had stocked extra shingles. He could have done everything telekinetically, but he enjoyed doing things by hand. Wanting to keep his small supply of clothes clean and being unconcerned with modesty, he was working in his boxer shorts.
Conner always said I needed more sun, he thought.
He forced himself to put Conner out of his mind. The one thing he missed was his brother. From a strictly logical viewpoint, he knew that it could be a weakness that was exploitable. However, he also knew that he was emotionally quite fragile when not involved in an operation.
Max sighed. He was two different people, and he wondered whether that would cause a problem. Others seemed to manage it well; he could only hope that he'd learn to do so.
Conner was politely smiling, but he was bored. He was manning the counter and listening to a woman go on about how well her son was doing in Wichita. Stimulating conversation, it was not.
He murmured the polite responses and rang her up for her purchase. When she left the store, he permitted himself a small sigh. The Kents would have lectured him on that, but Jonathon was called away for help with a farming issue and Martha was at home baking goods to bring in. When Conner had worked in the store before, they usually had him moving inventory or setting up displays. This time, there wasn't anyone else to work the counter, so he was doing it.
It wasn't that he disliked people, he thought. It was just that his concerns and interests were pretty far removed from those of most people's in Smallville. Sometimes it was nice to have things slow to a crawl, and sometimes it was maddening.
With the house restored, Max began work on reestablishing the computer network. It took him a few hours to get the system functional and update it. It took a couple hours beyond that to configure it to his preferences and create programs that automatically scanned world events to bring the important ones to his attention.
Max permitted himself a small smile. He didn't have a great information network yet, but he had a base to work from. He took Rhine's task seriously; he would help look after the world.
Superboy brought his fist down on the H.I.V.E. armored vehicle, smashing it open. It felt good to unwind with the Titans.
He half-turned and used his heat vision against a H.I.V.E. soldier's weapon, causing it to melt.
Kon had gotten over most of his guilt at hurting the Titans. He didn't forget what he did, but he realized that it wasn't something he had any control over. He had known that before, but he had finally accepted it.
Robin shouted, "Superboy, get their left flank! It looks like they're getting out some heavy artillery!"
"I'm on it!" Kon shouted as he charged.
Max swam in the ocean. The water was chilly, but it didn't bother him. He had taken to swimming for his exercise on the account of not having a good running path. He appreciated the change.
He enjoyed the privacy that the Contessa's island granted him. It was in a blind spot of the global network of surveillance satellites, and no planes flew overhead unless they were redirected due to weather. He wouldn't want to stay without contact forever, but, for a time, it was fine. He had considered hiding here when the Groups were looking for him, but it would have taken him longer to get to, and it was unlikely he could have made it without being detected. For this trip, he had carefully studied the schedules and orbits of satellites to travel at a time that would allow him to go undetected. He had his return to the Kents planned out already.
Conner was enjoying himself. The Titans were working with the JSA to do a joint operation. It wasn't that the JSA needed the help; it was felt that after recent events, it would be good for the two teams to develop some familiarity and bonds with each other.
Captain Marvel had power on the level of Superman, but had a distinctly different personality and attitude. He and Superboy chatted while waiting to do their part, and sometimes Kon felt like he was talking to a kid.
They stopped talking when they received the signal.
"Let's do it!" Kon said as he took off.
Max sat calmly in the room as he processed what was happening on nine different monitors. His attempt to create a program to analyze things had been unsatisfactory; it only had a ninety percent success rate. It was good for backup, but not a primary source to predict crisis situations.
Every time Max had found a likely situation that would require action, he dispatched a tip under a pseudonym with the information attached. Not all of his tips were followed up on, but he was slowly gaining a reputation as a good source. This had the side-effect of organizations trying to trace his location. Fortunately, they didn't have anybody as skilled as him trying.
Kon tried to keep a straight face as Robin ranted on about how difficult it was to trace this mysterious informant who occasionally gave the Titans leads. He couldn't recall Robin getting so worked up about anything.
"Do you think this is funny?" Robin demanded.
"No, you're completely right! We must track down this good samaritan and make him stop! He's clearly someone who should be locked up!"
"Now I know you're making fun of me," Robin said crossly.
"You're getting so worked up over someone who's helping us."
"What if this guy is using us to eliminate his rivals? He could be feeding us good information now to trick us later!"
"Don't you think you're being a bit paranoid? Not everyone is our enemy or out to manipulate us for nefarious purposes. It could be that this source is providing us information because it's not in the position to do anything about it, or not as thoroughly as us."
"Aren't you supposed to be the guy who hits things really hard? Stop being so reasonable and making well-thought arguments!"
Robin gave him a smile to let him know that he was joking. Kon grinned back at him.
Max manipulated the accounts and made the transfer. One of the very useful things about the internet was that when you had the correct password and account number, no one questioned your identity. He moved money from some of the Contessa's secret accounts to ones that he could access more easily. He could live a modest lifestyle with the Kents quite easily, but money made getting equipment and buying information so much easier.
He arranged for some purchases to be sent to drop boxes that he could retrieve later. He didn't want to return to the Kents without bringing gifts. It was only proper.
Conner woke up and blinked a few times. His eyes flickered over to his alarm clock. He groaned; he woke up before his alarm was set to go off. Something felt...different this morning.
He heard movement in the kitchen. He got up and went down. Since he was up already, he figured he might as well eat breakfast. He stopped abruptly when he got to the kitchen.
Max was there, preparing breakfast.
Conner felt himself smiling. He had missed his brother more than he had acknowledged. He was happy, very happy, to have him back.
"You're back," he said quietly.
"I am," Max replied. "I missed you."
"I did too."
"I brought you a gift," Max said, pointing out a box.
Conner went and opened it. "It's a black leather motorcycle jacket!"
"There's no S-shield on it, so you can wear it regularly."
"I really missed my old one. Thank you!"
Max smiled. "I'm glad you like it."
Conner looked at Max. "You got really tan. It looks good on you."
"Thank you."
There was a pause.
"I'm glad you're back," Conner said.
"I'm glad to be here," Max replied, smiling.
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It's been a while since my last one; this one took a little longer to get written than I thought it would.
Any comments welcome!