Max's Shadow

Chapter 2

"Hey, are you gonna eat that?"

The little boy groaned, rolling onto his side so that he could see Max's cage. She was pointing at his packet of food he'd received. He'd been too sick to eat it. Moving to grab it, he quickly ripped it open with his teeth before slipping the bag between their cages and into Max's waiting hands.

"You ain't dying, huh?"

Shaking his head, the three year old rolled into a ball, cradling his stomach. He felt horrible.

"You sick?"

"Max."

"What's wrong?"

He just patted his stomach, moaning. The girl sat there, eating while watching him. She wanted to do something for him, honest, there just wasn't anything she could do. Not to mention, she was eating. Why ruin that for this boy? Sure he opened things for her, but that was about it. It's not like he was going to die before she finished eating or anything.

"Do you gotta poop?" Max watched him, frowning. "They'll be mad at ya if you do it in your undies."

He just kept moaning. He didn't understand how to tell her that he was sick. After all, he only knew two words.

"Do you got infernal bleedin'?"

"…Max?"

"I dunno what it is. I thinks its where you gots a booboo in your tummy or somethin'."

Infernal didn't sound right to the boy, but he just nodded at her. That's what he had. Infernal bleeding.

"Yeah, that's proba'ly what ya got." Max kept munching away on her food. "We're gonna have to get you some bandies. Maybe if ya swallow 'em, they'll heal you!"

He just moaned more. Something about her logic seemed flawed, but what did he know? According to that Jeb guy, Max was in charge. As she had explained to him the other day, she was his leader. She was apparently smarted than him, or so she said. And he agreed, as she was able to speak and all he could say was hi and Max.

"If Jeb gets me today, I'll ask for some for ya," Max told him, nodding her head slightly. She was very self-confident, or so the boy was learning. That was okay though, 'cause he had full faith in her. So far she hadn't steered him wrong. Then again, she hadn't had much of a chance.

"Are you gonna throws up blood?" Max did seem kinda concerned as she leaned closer to her cage bars, looking in on him. "I throws up sometimes. When they gives me nasty stuffs."

"Max," he moaned, shutting his eyes once more, his hair flopping down in his eyes. It had grown out some since the last time they operated on his brain. They would shave it usually in those situations, but since he hadn't had need anything done recently, they were allowing it to grow. The little boy rather liked it long usually, but at the moment, it was annoying him.

The both sat there in the dark for awhile, Max laying down in her cage and going to sleep also when she finished her food. Err, well, the boy's food. Same difference to her though. Jeb told her she was the leader, right? And sometimes the lesser people had to give up things for the boss. That wasn't necessarily a bad thing.

People came and went from the room all day, though they just messed with other experiments. The little boy and girl slept through most of that, used to frequent interruptions. They had no real sleep schedule, just finding peace during the times when their caretakers didn't need them for some sort of experiment or test. Recently, they had needed the boy more than the girl, though they had just been messing with his wings. They hadn't grown in right and they had been snipping at his back for awhile now. This caused the child excruciating pain, of course, but he was honestly more concerned with his tummy. What if he really did have infernal bleeding? Max made it sound horrible. And what if eating the bandages didn't help nothing?

The sound of the door opening and closing to the main room did not rouse the children, but the sound of his own cage creaking up got the boy up. It was his whine of pain that woke Max though.

"Don't. He's got infernal bleedin'." Shooting up, Max wrapped her little arms around the bars of the front of her cage, glaring at the scientist pulling her little charge out from his pen. The woman frowned at the girl, not understanding what she meant. Distracted by her, the woman reached in the cage once more for the boy, who instead of just whining, took a page out of his newly crowned chief's handbook and fought back. And he only had one real weapon at his disposal.

"He bit me," the woman screeched, jerking away from him much to the amusement of Max.

"Now yous proba'ly gots infernal bleedin's too," Max said with confidence while the little boy huddled into a ball in the back of his cage, expecting repercussions for his act of rebellion.

"You little wretch!" The woman snatched the three year old boy now and he was too fearful to even attempt a second assault. Max just sat there in her cage, wide eyed, watching as the woman took him away. She was almost to the door when it opened, a man walking in. Max smiled when she saw him.

"Jeb! He's gots infernal bleedin'," she called to the man, one of the experiments next to her roaring from all the commotion. Max just stared at the man, pleading for him to help her friend.

Friends. That what they were. Kind of. Just a little.

"What's wrong with the child?" Jeb asked, turning to address the female scientist. "Dr. Newton?"

Hesitating, she just went ahead and handed him over to the man, looking down. It was clear the he was her superior and she looked to him for guidance.

"I was instructed to take him back, for further testing. Apparently they gave him a concoction of medicine early yesterday morning and wanted to see what it had done to him."

"Nothing good, looking at him," the man said as the little boy huddled against him. He figured that since this man, Jeb, was so kind to Max that he'd be just the same to him. This was not the case as Jeb sat him on the ground, none to gently. "That's all we needed to know, honestly. It was the plan to give it to Maximum. It's to help with speed. If these are the side affects though, it's best to wait it out, see what happens to him and then give it to her."

With that, the man turned and walked away, heading to the door. Max wasn't having any of that though.

"Jeb," she whined. "What 'bout him? He's gots infernal bleedin'!"

He just looked back at them before nodding at the female scientist.

"Put him back in his cage. If he's still breathing in the morning, then we'll deal with him."

"You think he might die?" the woman asked, frowning. "We can't allow that. He's-"

"We have a replacement for him."

"A replacement?"

Jeb smiled then, shaking his head as he exited the room. "He's only Max's shadow, this one. Worthless. This new one, he'll be so much greater."

"We have a new one?"

"Yes. His wings aren't nearly as deformed. It will be much simpler, the future will be, with our newest child. This one is just a toy now. His only use it for test rounds. We wouldn't want to hurt Maximum or the new child, would we?"

As soon as he left, the woman quickly tossed the boy back into his cage, rather roughly. Crumbling up, the toddler huddled into a ball once more, whining. Max just watched, waiting for the woman to leave before reaching through the bars of her cage over to his, trying to touch him. Slowly, he reached out also, holding her hand.

"It's okay," Max tried to soothe as he sat there silently, not able to help the tears falling down his face. "Don't be a baby so much."

Sniffling, he closed his eyes tightly until the tears dried up. Then he resolved to never cry in front of her again. Or those stupid, mean scientists. He wasn't sure what a shadow was, but they had not made it sound good. So if he had to be that, so be it, but he would not be a crybaby. He'd be just as strong as Max. If not stronger. Because Max's shadow or not, he was still him. Whoever he was.

"I think my wings is better-er than yours."

Blinking, the little boy looked at the girl next to him. They were standing in an examination area, both getting their wingspan measured. He hadn't seen Max recently, as he had just finished getting surgery on his wings. This was his first time seeing Max's though. She seemed pretty proud about them. They were different colors, which was nice, while his were just boring black. One upped again by this girl. He couldn't catch a break.

"It's okay though," Max assured him. "I'm leader. I gots to haves better wings."

"Oh."

Max gasped before smiling at him. "You said another word!"

He nodded, happy with himself. "Oh. Hi, Max."

"Hi."

They both frowned as a new boy was sat down in front of them. He was shirtless, wings unfurled, just like the two of them. The scientist that had brought him in took the one examining the other two kids aside, speaking to him in hushed tones.

"Hi," Max greeted him. "You got wings too."

"I do," he said, nodding his head as he stood before them.

"I'm Max," she introduced. "What's your name?"

"Mmmm…I change it lots."

"What's it today?"

"I likes iguanas. Ain't that a fun word to say?"

Nodding, Max said, "Yeah."

"So call me Iguana."

"Or Iggy."

"Or that."

They both turned to the boy then, who was frowning down at the ground, refusing to look at either of them.

Who was this other guy anyways? How come he had wings? Was he a shadow too? Something told the boy no. That made him angry. This new guy, Iguana, thought he could just come in here and be all nice to Max? Max was his friend first. And he just knew she'd choose Iggy over him. He just knew it. Well, he'd like to see Iggy open something with only his teeth!

"Who are you?" the boy asked the silent one.

"He don't know how to talk good," Max said. "And he ain't gots a name."

"Then you should name him! I names lots of peoples. Lots. Sometimes, they don't even knows."

"Hmmm." Max glanced over at the boy, making him look at the ground again. Then she patted him on the shoulder. "I'mma calls you Bites. 'cause you bites lots of things."

"That's stupid." Iguana shook his head.

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Then what would you call 'im?"

"Mmmm…if he likes to bites so much, then I'd call him Fangs."

"Fangs," Max said slowly.

"Yeah. Like teeths, but-"

"I know what they are!" Crossing her arms, Max immediately went into a deep debate within her own mind. She liked that name. Fangs. However, this new guy had been the one to offer it up. If she allowed this, then he would think he was in charge. That would not due.

"The name Fangs is dumb."

"Is not," Iggy complained.

"Fang is a better name."

"It's the same thing!"

"No." Max shook her head. Honestly, she loved adding an s to the end of things, but this was her position as leader on the line. "I'm boss. Not you. Right, Fang?"

The boy nodded quickly. Fang. Fang. Fang. How would he ever figure out how to say that? Still, he had to agree with Max. If he didn't, she might stop being his friend or whatever. He couldn't have that.

"Fine," Iggy said, crossing his arms while glaring at the girl. "Max, Fang, and Tiger.

"Tiger?"

Nodding, he said, "I just 'sided that's my new name."

"No," Max told him, crossing her arms. "Your name is Iggy."

"But I-"

"Max, Fang, and Iggy."

"Iggy, Max, and Fang," the boy challenged.

"No. I said it in the rights order the first time." Max looked at Fang before back at Iggy. "We come first. Always."

Fang smiled finally as the scientists came back to them, ordering the children to put their shirts back on. He might be Max's shadow and that might not mean much to that Jeb guy, but it clearly meant something to Max. It clearly meant a lot to Max.

Right?

It was a beating getting this updated today. Anyone that's tried knows the Manage Stories tab is down. I had to, like, figure out the story id for this story and then play around with the URLs for this site before I figured it out. Simple once you get it, but heck figure it out.