Catching Up

Splatburger

During the time that they were supposed to be in Biology class, Max and Sam were sitting down eating burgers and fries at Splatburger, laughing and talking about life. The last time they saw each other was when Max left Metroburg for Hiddenville about a year and a half ago; the last time they spoke to each other was right when Max got the call from Dark Mayhem to steal Phoebe's powers with his orb. So they definitely had a lot of catching up to do.

"I still can't believe you're being considered for the Z-Force! I also can't believe Dark Mayhem called you and offered you a chance to be a true villain." Sam said as she grabbed a fry.

"So what made you decide not to take Phoebe's powers after all?" Sam asked as Max took a bite out of his burger. "I don't know, Phoebe told me everything I would be losing if I ended up going through with it, her, my ex Allison, my family, friends; I realized as much as I wanted to be better than her, I didn't want to lose those things. So I gave everybody their powers back and took Dark Mayhem's. His powers have been locked in the orb ever since."

Sam is amazed by his story. She was thinking about bringing up Allison but decided against it, Max can tell her more when he's ready, he didn't see it but her face lit up a bit when he said the word ex. "Damn, I can't believe you were brave enough to do that. I wouldn't have the guts. I'm going to miss doing evil things with you, hopefully we don't have to fight each other in the future." Sam jokingly says.

"How can I ever fight you? You're my best friend." Max replies sincerely. Sam blushes at Max's remarks, weirdly he is the only person that can ever get that reaction from her.

"Uhhhh, so, how have you been? Tell me you've still been doing evil things, making me proud?" Max asks, interested in what Sam has been doing for the past few months.

"Well, I don't know if you noticed but I ended up removing "Nora Rules" from the moon and put "Specter Strikes!" Max laughs. He forgot that she wanted her villain name to be Specter for her phasing power even though her family always called her the little Lightning Bug for her electrokinesis. "I made a few doomsday devices, but of course I can't try them cause you know I don't want to die. And I caused a few power outages in Metroburg. Now I'm applying to Villain University soon." As Sam finishes her story, Max has a proud look on his face. "That's great Sam! I'm happy for you, at least one of us is going to be a villain."

"You know, you can still be one. It's not too late to go back. Remember when I made the power to go out at school and you made trash tornadoes with your telekinesis?" Max laughed at the story, "Yeah! We had detention for a month, but you still managed to phase us out of the room. We went to the mall almost every day that month, you disabled security alarms while I froze the guards to steal stuff from the electronic store. Luke Lightbeam was picking on you one day too, so I used my telekinesis and gave him a wedgie, he couldn't look at us in the eye for a week " Sam was happy that Max was reminiscing the 'bad' times they had. He was the only person she would've been happy ruling the world with, but now that he's good, she'll never have that dream.

"Do you miss it sometimes? Wanting to be a supervillain?" Sam asked Max with a great curiosity and he thought about this very carefully. Ever since he became a superhero, no one asked him if he missed being evil. He knows that the reason he wanted to be a supervillain in the first place was to be the best at being bad, to be better than Phoebe at something. But, as time went on, he genuinely enjoyed being a villain.

"I do. I admit it, there are times where I do miss it." Max says as he takes a bite out of his burger. "But that's all in the past and this is me now. There have been times where other heroes-in-training made me feel ashamed of everything I did during those villain days, so I don't really talk about it that much."

Max sighs as he finishes. "I don't like following the rules all the time but I've gotten used to it. I've had to prove to others constantly that I can be a good hero but that's still going to take some time. Being evil was fun, but I know I made the right decision to be a hero." Max never said those words out loud, not even to Phoebe.

He knew she wouldn't be able to understand because Dark Mayhem's powers turned her evil. He was evil by choice, so he was glad he could talk to Sam again about this stuff.

Sam looks at Max with a disappointed but understanding look on her face. "Well if you need to talk about it more, I'm always here." Sam puts her hand on top of Max's as a sign of trust. Max blushes as Sam grabs his hand.

Many hours have gone by and Max and Sam's conversation is cut short when all of a sudden, Phoebe walks into Splatburger with Cherry, Gideon, Wolfgang and Oyster.

"Max where were you? You skipped 3 classes and it's already lunch time!" Phoebe asks Max with a disappointed look on her face.

"Relax, Phoebe I just wanted to catch up with Sam and time just got away from us. Sam, clearly irritated by Phoebe's presence, agrees with Max. "Yeah, Phoebe. Why are you being so lame? Just let us talk to each other in peace."

Phoebe is taken aback by Sam's comments. 7 years have gone by and she still has no clue why Sam doesn't like her. When Max introduced Sam to her, Phoebe was very nice and didn't do any wrong but Sam just hated her from the very beginning, oh well.

"Okay, fine keep talking and skip the whole day. But Max, when you're done, come home right away. Mom and Dad need to fill us in on the "situation." Max realizes what she's talking about and nods in agreement.

Phoebe walks back to the booth with Cherry, Oyster, Wolfgang and Gideon. Cherry asks Phoebe, "So who's the girl sitting with Max?"

"Oh. That's Samantha, Max's friend from back home." Phoebe says out loud but then whispers to Cherry "...from his villain days."

Cherry, still focusing her gaze on Max and Sam as she sees them laughing and smiling from afar, asks Phoebe, "Did they ever date at any point?"

Phoebe looks at her all confused by the question. "Wait what, no! They've been friends ever since we were kids." She quickly brushes any thought of them dating or liking each other.

Cherry has a hunch. "Hmmm, just asking. 'Cause I haven't seen Max light up like that since our double date with Allison."

Phoebe turns around to see what Cherry's talking about. She may not like Sam, but Cherry's right. She hadn't seen Max that happy in a long time, not since Allison dumped him. Although she doesn't trust Sam, she trusts Max, he's not evil anymore and he promised her that he won't go back. Who knows? Maybe his good influence will rub off on Sam. She smiles at her younger twin and turns back to talk to her friends.