I'm so glad to know there are still a few fans of Mighty Max reading fic in the world!

Enjoy!

#2: Virgil

Virgil wiped a feathery hand against his head, though it did absolutely nothing to cool him; without sweat glands, he was forced to concentrate on his breathing to try to relieve the heat burning in the very air. Still, the gesture was a human one and Virgil had learned long ago to copy human motions in times of stress – even if they served no purpose for him, they had a purpose nonetheless.

"Chill out, Virg! It's only eighty billion degrees in here!" Max called.

Virgil kept his eyes on the boy who was all too far away, grateful that Max's tone was upbeat rather than frightened. If feigning wiping away nonexistent sweat kept the Mighty One grounded, Virgil would gladly use up precious energy on the ruse.

But he was not the only one suffering in the heat. Even from this distance, Virgil could see Max's shirt sticking to him, almost translucent from the water pouring off the boy's skin. The Cap was as resilient as ever, but it crowned a head dark with sweat, the hair plastered to Max's head and neck.

Virgil dared glance to one side. "Norman! You must hurry up!"

In return he received only a wordless growl. Norman's own sweat ran down his back and arms in rivulets and he was panting like a dog in the desert.

"Yes, I know our proximity to the caldera is uncomfortable, but time is of the essence! The Mighty One needs us!"

Norman's glare went cold and even more furious and he shoved at the stubborn fixture with all his strength.

Virgil turned back to where the Cap-Bearer was perched rather precariously high above. When the villain behind the plot to try to force the Yellowstone supervolcano into erupting had tossed them down here to die, Norman had been able to shove the Mighty One to relative safety on an outcropping before he redirected his own and Virgil's fall to a ledge far below.

The lucky outcome of the maneuver was that Mighty Max was in position to interfere with the controls for the detonators planted around the caldera and stood a good chance of preventing an explosion that could unbalance the volcano and cause untold deaths and destruction.

The unlucky outcome was that he was alone up there, with said villain closing in having realized his plan was in danger.

While Norman fought with the scaffolding that had been left here, mere yards from the bubbling lava in this underground cavern, Virgil strained to keep an eye on their boy. For the moment, Max was using his speed and his agility to keep out of range of their opponent, but he could not dodge forever.

And if Virgil was any judge – and he knew himself to be – he could guess the Cap-Bearer was only moments away from forgoing his own safety entirely to take a risk in order to thwart the evil plan and save the world.

Which was all well and good, in general, and Virgil applauded his boy's focus on heroism.

But no longer so heartily at the risk to his life.

After Toyama, Virgil had found that, as much as he intended to see the world's safety preserved, to defeat Skullmaster and all evils like him that would threaten the lives of the innocent, he was not willing to accept that victory at the cost of Mighty Max. On a practical level, he told himself that for as long as the Cap-Bearer lived, any evil might yet be vanquished.

But truly, if he was honest with himself, he just couldn't bear to lose the boy, now or ever.

"Hey, this looks important!"

Virgil saw the flash of a pale arm and something went flying off the outcropping to tumble into the lava waiting below.

"Get away from there! How dare you?"

"I'm the Mighty One! It's in my job description to dare!"

There was a sound that was too much like a grunt of pain, as though the Mighty One had been struck or tripped. Virgil's heart froze in his chest and no amount of volcanic heat could have thawed it.

"Norman!" Virgil yelled. "Mighty Max needs us now!"

Norman gave a roar of pure fury, his rage rising hotter than the volcano beneath their feet. With a strength born of desperation, he yanked the scaffolding clear of the stone and tipped it like a giant ladder up to where his boy fought alone. If Virgil hadn't been scrambling to him, Norman might well have left him to manage alone.

And if Virgil would have slowed him, he would have let Norman pitch him into the lava rather than leave their boy at risk for one more moment.

Norman raced up the haphazard pipes and planks with the speed of a charging tiger. But even before they reached the top, Virgil heard a familiar cry – one common to villains all over the world when faced with defeat.

"No! Not that!"

"Yep! That!"

There was a great groaning of metal and a few low concussive blasts and Virgil could see electricity arcing up around the platform that was the evil-doer's center of operations. Then came a flash of a grin and a Cap and Max was bolting away from the mess he had left behind.

Norman reached the ledge just as the heat shields erected around the equipment upon which the villain's plot depended collapsed and the equipment began failing with flashing lights and wailing sirens before falling quickly silent and still.

"Heat," Max gasped, rubbing at his face with a soot-covered arm. "It's a killer."

Virgil examined the scene and did some quick mental math. "I believe the connections to the various explosives have melted. Without a coordinated blast, even setting them off individually should not be enough to disrupt the volcano."

"Good. Then we just gotta keep Sparky from setting this all up again." Max skidded to join them.

Virgil might once have let the Mighty One settle into position with himself and Norman without a blink, but now he made sure to wrap one feathered hand around Max's arm just to reassure them both that he was well. That he was not hurt.

That he had not failed the Chosen One this time. That he had not failed Max this time.

The villain, shouting incoherently with rage, charged them with what appeared to be a piece of a chair in his hands.

Norman and Max exchanged fierce, knowing grins. "Normie? Would you do the honors?"

"It would be my pleasure, Mighty One."

In the end, Norman dragged the volcano-obsessed madman all the way back to the surface, where they handed him over to the authorities along with a map Max had swiped of every location he had planted his bombs. Norman had his hands full with the ranting and furious villain, and the Cap-Bearer had kept him almost completely distracted with a running banter of insults that likely prevented him from taking advantage of any opening Norman might have provided.

And all the way, Virgil watched his boy. The volcano, Yellowstone, none of it mattered. His boy was alight and confident and unharmed. Even alone, even without them, he had been victorious.

But Virgil couldn't help but shiver with cold at what might have been.