Chapter 2- Superhero or supervillain?
Barb opened the door slowly and closed it, running concerned to her daughter's side.
'What is it, dear?', she asked Phoebe, who was shaking uncontrollably, now.
Phoebe took a deep breath and said, stumbling:
'H-he's l-leavin', M-mom...'
Now it was Barb's turn to get worried.
'Who? Who's leaving, dear?'
Phoebe didn't answer, starting to sob again, soothed by Barb.
'If you don't want to tell me, it's...'
'MAX', Phoebe cried out, interrupting Barb.
Barb stopped dead for a moment, processing the information.
'Are you sure, Phoebe? Where is he going then?'
Phoebe answered much calmer now:
'Villain U. As Billy says, he was talking with Dark Mayhem himself!'
'I see. And you're sad because...?', Barb asked questionably.
'I care about him, mom! And I know that he is not a bad person... I mean, what villain would help his sister, take all the blame, or create a clone, so she can do more things at once.'
Barb smiled.
'It was the time you observed.'
Phoebe looked deep in her mother's eyes.
'Wait, you knew? All this time?!'
'Don't be so surprised dear, mothers know everything. And I think that I know how to stop Max go to that University, because I suspect he will sneak out of the house and-'
Barb was interrupted by her phone ringing. She got her iPhone out of her pocket and answered.
'Yes. Yes. I see. Max? When? Alright, we'll be there, thank you.', Barb said hanging up.
As Phoebe heard Max, she suddenly knew something was wrong or going to be wrong.
'Who was that? What? How?'
'It was Superman, he wanted to invite Max and you to Metroburg, in order to award you and Max a prize for the best Superjunior heroes of the Thundermans-'
Phoebe's cry forced Barb to stop for a moment. When she saw that Phoebe calmed down, she carried on:
'And Max is going to get first, due to his many services for this family.'
Phoebe froze.
'That's impossible! Max is... But he...', she knew what to say no more.
'I think that the Superheroes Council appreciated his attempts to be good by helping you, despite his lack of ethics.', Barb said, receiving no response from Phoebe, so she hastened to add: 'It is going to be the perfect excuse, so Max won't go to Villain U!'
Phoebe looked a little undecided, but nodded in approval.
'Yes, well... I think that he d-deserves the prize.', she said halfhearted.
'That's my girl!', Barb exclaimed, living Phoebe alone.
Phoebe remained still, staring at the ceiling thoughtfully. There was something creepy about all this: the prize, Max and Villain U, but she couldn't figure out what...
'Oh, well, I'll figure it out tomorrow...', Phoebe thought, falling asleep.
It was weird- everything was enveloped in the light of the sun at dusk, but everything was silent and all the buildings around were ruined. He looked around and all he could see was a dark shadow coming towards him. As the unknown figure advanced, he was able to see his face, or the mask that covered it- there was no way of mistaking: it was Dark Mayhem. He unfolded his fist and a green light ball took shape and then it hit Max in the chest...
Max's eyes snapped opened and he immediately came to his senses, observing that some drops of blood were already streaming from his nose.
Next day...
'Good morning, Max!', Barb said as Max came in sight, trying to look refreshed after a so called resting sleep.
'Hello, Barbs!', he exclaimed but had to rectify as he received a "mom look" from his mother.
'Anyway, congrats, my dear!', she cried out, embracing and kissing Max.
When he managed to keep a reasonable distance between himself and Barb, he asked bewildered:
'What's going on?'
Barb smiled and said:
'You were awarded by the Superheroes Council for being the best Thunderman in-training-'
'Wait,', Max interrupted Barb, 'does it mean that I'm better then Phoebe?!'
Barb nodded halfhearted.
'I'M BETTER THEN PHOEBE!', Max yelled, starting to jump around like a schoolgirl.
'What about me?', Phoebe asked, dragging her feet slowly.
'I'M BETTER THAN YOU!', Max screamed in her face.
Phoebe sighed, but said nothing. What was she supposed to say?! Superheroes Council was never wrong!
Max happily grabbed his iPhone and headed towards the door.
'Where are you going, sweetie?', Barb asked.
Max froze and answered, turning to Barb:
'I was... Uhm...'
'Then I presume that it is not important.'
'Well-'
'Good!', Barb exclaimed and continued: 'Because you and Phoebe are invited in Metroburg so they can give you the prize.'
As Max heard "prize", his attention was captured:
'Prize?'
Barb promptly answered:
'Yes, I think it was a thousand dollars, or so...'
Max had to decide between Villain U or a thousand dollars and soon decided: the 1000 dollars.
'Alright, I presume it won't take too long...', Max said shrugging.
In Metroburg, Superheroes Council's secret hideout...
Max, Phoebe and Barb opened the double doors at the entrance of the SC's secret headquarters and soon were able to see the spectacular sitting room, where columns of glass supported the heavy ceiling and decorations made also of glass came down from the gray ceiling directly toward the floor.
'Oh, here you are!', a familiar voice said, snapping the three Thundermans from their thoughts.
As they turned their heads, they recognized the possessor of the voice immediately- it was Superman. After the etiquette requirements were fully fulfilled, Superman led the three Thundermans to a marble stair that led to an area where there was absolutely no one, as Phoebe soon observed.
Superman stopped and opened a glass door, inviting the Thundermans into a sitting room nicely decorated, making haste of getting everyone sited.
'So? When are you going to give me the prize I deserve and Phoebe doesn't?', Max said, smirking at Phoebe, but she ignored him, looking at Superman, observing every gesture of his facial expression and soon observed that Superman raised his eyebrows, but then he said:
'Right, the prize well...'
'Oh come on!', Phoebe burst, 'Tell us why did you want us here because I don't buy the prize story, OK?'
Her words floated in the stiffened air, and everyone glared at her.
'Sorry, I didn't mean to-', Phoebe tried to save her reputation, blushing.
'No, actually you are right, young lady. I wanted to meet Max here, so I can tell him the truth about his birth...'
Max looked as he had been slapped by someone with super-strength, but Superman took no notice of it.
'What's so mysterious about his birth, Clark?', Barb said in a fighting way.
Superman raised his hands in the air and said:
'Well, I don't think that you remember that he was born when Achilles comet just entered in the atmosphere, causing great issues with our powers and giving part of them to all the super-children that had to be born on that day, and this time it was born one only.'
'I don't get it!', Max exclaimed. 'What do you mean, that I have all your powers or what?'
Superman continued as Max hadn't said a thing:
'We all know that usually superpowers are equally distributed between twins, but this time there was a special case: Phoebe had to be born with all the powers and Max had to be a normal person. But the Providence decided otherwise, and Max was born when the Achilles comet, the one that gives us our powers, reappeared in the skies. As this comet has the property of giving us powers, it also has the power to enrich our powers and make then uncontrollable. Now that Max was born on that day gave him all the powers we have, so he is the most powerful superhero yet.'
'YES! I AM BETTER THAN PHOEBE!', Max cried out, receiving cold glares from everyone in the room.
'But I want to know if his or Phoebe's powers gone wrong when the Achilles comet entered again in the atmosphere, some months ago.'
Barb answered, looking straight into Superman's eyes:
'No, because they're twins and as long as they stay together-'
'NO, no foolish woman!', Superman yelled angrily at Barb. 'Did they stay together during the coming of Achilles comet?!'
Barb nodded, visibly insulted.
'Because if they did, Max's powers couldn't be activated. Were there any moments when you two were parted by more than 5 feet?'
This time Phoebe answered:
'Well only for a short moment, but some things almost started to levitate.'
Superman nodded thoughtfully and then turned to Max.
'Please freeze her, Max.', Superman asked Max, and he did as he was told. Before Barb would ask any questions, he ordered Max:
'Now use all your powers, OK?'
Max nodded, levitating everything that was in the room, including pieces of furniture, Superman, Barb and the frozen Phoebe. Then, he used his breath to froze the floor and then unfreeze it. As he did so, he felt something breaking inside of him, and he dropped his hold of everything unwillingly, everything crushing on the floor.
When Superman and Barb managed to stay on their feet, Max asked Superman:
'Why was it necessary to do this?', Max asked panting.
'Because it was necessary to break the connection that blocked your powers, but made Phoebe more powerful. From now on, the connection exists no more, and you are totally independent from her. I also presume that you unlocked all your powers now, so try them!', Superman said, breathing heavily.
'And they are?', Max asked, looking at Superman.
'Well, you have to discover them one by one, but I have an idea of what powers you have. Try all the powers you know.'
"All the powers I know?", Max thought. "Right, those powers!", he thought smiling.
'Superspeed!', he said, disappearing in a blush and reappearing some seconds later. 'Nice coffee machines, by the way!', he said smirking at Superman.
'Try something else, now.', he replied calmly.'
Max tried them all: superstrength, eyelasers, and controlling electricity. There was one more left: flying.
'Now let's fly!', Max exclaimed, but was soon stopped by Superman.
'Not here. Maybe later, because this room already looks a little...destroyed.', Superman said, and Max observed that pieces of broken glass were almost everywhere, the glass door was pulled of its hinges and melted ice covered the floor.
'The most you can do right now is to unfreeze your sister.', Superman said, and Max nodded halfhearted.
But as he, Superman and Barb looked around, there was no trace of Phoebe.
'For God's sake, where is she?!', Barb cried out.
Max didn't answer, his eyesight becoming blurry and replaced by a vision, not at all pleasant.
'Leave me alone!', Phoebe yelled as she tried to stay away from Dark Mayhem.
The latter said nothing, but threw a ball of fire towards Phoebe, but she managed to dodge using her cold-breath. Dark Mayhem tried to catch Phoebe and the two of them started to fight with quick and might moves...
The vision disappeared and Max soon observed his mother's worried look.
'She's in danger!', was all he said before superspeeding away.