It was late in the day when Max and Jason finally left the Intrepid office, the sun sinking and casting Silver City in gold. A breeze nowhere near warm ruffled Jason’s coat. He was glaring at the sidewalk as they went, in contrast to Max’s springy step.
“That worked out much better than I’d hoped! And they also gave me a stipend to get you some new clothes, too! Very kind of them!” he said cheerfully, the card burning a hole in his pocket. He eyed an ice cream shop on the way. God, he hadn’t had ice cream in years. “Want a treat before we head back?”
“You bastard.” Jason growled.
“Hmm? Normally people are happy when offered ice cream.” Max said, eyebrow raised. Jason ground his teeth.
“Not that, you idiot! You knew! You knew they’d call the cops if we went there!”
“I may have had an inkling.” Max admitted.
“You bastard, I told you I didn’t want anyone to know!” Jason shouted. Max cast his eyes around; the boy’s shouts were attracting even more attention than his size.
“I see. Perhaps it would be best to discuss this in private.” Before Jason could utter a yelp Max bundled him up and took to the sky, bouncing off buildings like an acrobatic pinball. He squirmed in the gigantic arms, but before he could turn into a snake to escape, they were out of town. Not far, just in a field outside the city. The long, dry grass waved in the wind, beckoning them to Savage Peak, the mountain with the mines that gave the city its name.
Max set Jason down next to a flat rock and cracked his back. It was tiring, being buffed up for so long. While he was stretching, he let go and deflated with a sigh of relief.
“Whew! Keeping that up works up an appetite. But before that, we should talk.” he said to the surly shapeshifter. He sat down on the rock and patted it, inviting Jason to stomp down and collapse in a huff. “Now. What exactly are you upset about?”
“I told you, you moron! If people know, I’ll be found out and MetaTech’ll get to me again!” Jason snapped. Max nodded.
“Yes, I understand that very well. However, we worked it out so that won’t happen.” Max said, and Jason rolled his eyes.
“Yeah right.”
“Well, Detective Armstrong and Director Harrison seem to understand the severity of the situation, and I somehow doubt Vivian will be a problem earlier. You must know this was inevitable. This Knightsbridge will find out, sooner or later.” Max explained.
“Sooner now that more people know.” Jason said darkly.
“But now you have allies, and ostensibly a support network. The road ahead will be hard, but it’s more doable now. Now we can face him more on our terms.” Max continued in an even, soothing tone. But Jason was growing more agitated, rocking back and forth as what felt like embers swirled in his chest, hot and quick.
“But...but…” Jason sighed. “I...you...I know I agreed to the whole hero thing. I didn’t realize that of course they’d call the cops. That’s...that’s on me, I guess.” he said, face burning. “But I wouldn’t have said yes if I’d known. And you knew that!” he declared, jabbing a finger at Max.
“And why is that a bad thing?” Max said. Jason was taken aback.
“Why-? Because it’s not what I wanted!” he cried.
“Mmm-hmm. Tell me, lad. Do you think you’re equipped to make the best decisions right now?” he asked.
“More’n you.” Jason sneered.
“How about your friends from school? Are all those either twelve-year-olds capable of making good life choices, right now, as they are?” he said. Jason opened his mouth to say yes. But an image of Harry trying to drink from two two-liter sodas at once sprang to mind. On class picture day. His hair was sticky and matted for the rest of the day. Jason glared at Max, with as much heat as he could muster.
“I’m right about that, and you know it. You’re smart enough to see that. Are you smart enough to realize it’s a bad idea for a twelve-year-old boy to go off half-cocked and try to kill the most important man in the city?” Max said. Jason felt a pang in his chest.
“Don’t talk down to me! You don’t know what I’ve been through! Don’t pretend you do!” Jason cried. Max heaved a heavy sigh.
“Unfortunately, I do. More than you know.”
“You goddamn liar!” Jason shouted, nearly in tears. Max just smiled, looking up at the sky. The moon was out, pale and half-full, but a reminder the celestial sphere wasn’t empty. “Forget this. Forget you.” Jason growled, turning away to leave.
“I think, the problem lies in miscommunication. I am sorry for letting your identity out, but I did it to help you. Can you see where I’m coming from?” Max asked.
“Nope!”
“I understand. But would you like to? After all, I don’t think I ever upheld my original half of the bargain. You told me how you got your powers. Wanna know how I got mine?” he said. Jason paused. Max had been fairly tight-lipped about himself. If he left now, he’d never know. Max smiled when he saw the hesitation. Got him.
“It’s not just how I got my powers. It’s how I know what you’re going through...to an uncomfortable degree. With understanding comes enlightenment. I know about you. Would you like to learn about me?” Jason rolled his eyes, but sat down again.
“I’m leaving after.” he said haughtily. Max chuckled.
“You can if you want. But a quick question, though. Of the many heroes and villains that have appeared, how many aren’t...from here?” Max asked.
“Huh? From Silver City? Most of ‘em, I guess. Dirge’s the most famous one from here.” the shapeshifter said. Max shook his head.
“No, what I mean is, are all of them...human?” he clarified.
“I think so. Most of the weird-looking ones were mutated, or uh, ‘born with genetic mutations that require an external trigger or develop around the onset of puberty.’” Jason said, quoting an article he’d read a couple years back. “Why? What, you’re not?” he said, narrowing his eyes. Max chuckled and held his hands up.
“No, I’m human. From Earth, just like you. But I didn’t spend all my years here. Y’see…” He took a deep breath, steeling himself. “I was abducted, taken into space one day ten years ago.” he said solemnly. Jason’s eyes went wide and he jumped to his feet.
“Aliens are real!?” he blurted.
“Yes. Sit down and I’ll continue.” Max said, and Jason bashfully sat on the rock.
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“Oof! Watch it! Max yelped, bouncing around in the cage. Aliens, real aliens, had locked him in it for the last day, shooting through the stars. They were strange, resembling bipedal lizards with spiked crests on the back of their heads, but Max had never seen a purple lizard with two sets of arms before. Well, now he had. They hadn’t paid attention to anything he said or did, no matter how loud. It was doubtful they could even understand him, their language seemed to consist of chirps, barks, snarls, and hissing. He had to listen to it all night, or however long it was before he’d passed out.
But now they had docked with, judging from the glance of the screen he could see, a much bigger ship. One of the lizards simply picked the cage up, hefting it on...maybe his shoulder, and hauled him to a dark room on the other side of the airlock.
“H-Hey! What gives?” Max said nervously, peering around. The lizard was silent. Suddenly there was a hum as the lights turned on, and the door opened.
In stepped a humanoid figure with dark green mottled skin, glistening in the harsh light. Max looked up in terror as the creature walked over to the lizard. Underneath its’ long buttoned-up navy robe he could see it was barefoot, each of the three toes terminating in a lethal-looking talon. The creature handed the lizard several small cards, snapping and hissing in an approximation of it’s language. The lizard turned and hurried off, casting an almost pitying look back at him. The creature loomed over the cage.
“Zkrmghan?”
“H-Hello?” Max said tentatively, then recoiled as the creature shoved it’s face against the cage. It was an octopus, bald and tentacled where a nose and mouth would be on a human. Its eyes were wide and shimmering, changing color as they caught the light tilting and turning. Baleful red, ominous blue, predatory yellow.
“Oh hi there! You speak English?” it suddenly said like a hyperactive puppy, the tentacles probing into the cage. Max was gobsmacked.
“You speak English?” he said.
“Oh yes oh yes of course. I’m quite fluent in a number of obscure dialects. So you’re from Hume right? Fantastic simply fantastic! I’ve never seen a human in person before! Wonderfully marvelous!” he said, clapping his taloned hands excitedly.
“Um, it’s, it’s Earth, actually.” Max said sheepishly.
“Hmm? No you’re human, stands to reason you’d be from the planet Hume...hmm…” He consulted a small rectangular device, presumably a kind of personal computer. “Ah! Seems you’re from that Earth planet. Quite strange humans from Earth. Oh well get to Hume later if it exists!” He snapped his fingers, and a small, wide robot on treads zipped into the room. It looked like a box with treads and a single eye, probably a camera. To arms unlatched from it’s sides and it effortlessly picked up the whole cage, moving with the octopied creature as he began to walk.
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“Humans are quite rare in the galaxy yes indeed. I can’t believe you haven’t gotten to interplanetary travel yet, it’s honestly not that hard!”
“S-Sorry.” Max said in a daze. They were passing a long window, and Max could see into space. Stars dotted the black outside, there was a nebula in the distance, and he could see the lizards’ cigar-shaped ship zooming off with incredible speed. “Wow.” he said breathlessly.
“Hmm? Oh yes the view is lovely in this sector.” the creature said, waving it’s tentacles dismissively. But I'm so excited you’re here! That means I can finally get started! No time to waste no time to waste! “He was practically skipping as they went past the window.
Max glanced over to the other side of the wall. The entire length of hallway was covered in sliding doors, with tiny windows in the center of them, each identical. Within, he caught glimpses of fantastical creatures, many of them at least vaguely humanoid, no matter their size, color, or number of eyes. All of them had the same hopeless, broken look to them, slumped in their cells. It reminded Max uncomfortably of a prison block.
“Uh, g-get started on what? Where am I? And why am I here?” he asked. The creature snapped his fingers.
“That’s right that’s right, I still haven’t given you the introduction! I’m sorry, my mind isn’t quite what it used to be. You start to forget things after...let’s see…” He consulted his computer. “Earth has...aha! 80,000 of your ears!”
“E-Eighty-”
“I, dear boy, am the greatest biologist in the universe! I’ve devoted my life to naturalist studies and am the foremost authority on genetic structures organic or not! My galactic renown is incredible! My boy you stand in the presence of Ray Quasar, geneticist extraordinaire!” The robot puffed a little sprinkling of glitter as he bowed with a flourish, leaving Max dumbfounded. “Ah I see my greatness has left you dumbstruck! Not to worry not to worry. Your role isn’t one that requires speech.
“U-Um, that’s nice and all, b-but my mom’ll miss me if I don’t get home soon. Can you drop me off soon, please?” he asked, growing more and more uneasy.
“Home? But you just got here! Come come, to the table!” Ray declared, moving forward again.
“Ah yeah, but you see I-ow!” Ray jabbed a pen-like device into Max’s arm, then held it up. “What was that for!?”
“A reading on the exact composition and chemical makeup of your body, duh.” Ray said, taping buttons on the device. “Hmm. Carbon-based, seems to be mammalian, pubescent, or at least hormone levels indicate in the stages of maturity...not female. Got it. Hoo boy you wouldn’t believe some of the messes I’ve gotten into because of that. It’s not my fault you mammalians all look alike. A little more sexual dimorphism would be appreciated you know.” Ray babbled as the robot brought the cage into a large white room at the end of the hall.
There were several monitors and consoles along the wall, many with pictures and readouts of presumably different species across the universe. There was a large rounded box in the corner, connected to so many tubes and wires it put Ray’s tentacles to shame. But what disturbed Max the most was a large table in the center, with lights, cameras, and what he bet was alien medical equipment hanging from a dais in the ceiling. He started shaking at the unmistakable sight of restraints along the edges, no matter how advanced they looked.
“Um, Mr. Quasar? Ray? W-Why are we here? What, what are you g-going to do?” Max said nervously. Humming to himself, Ray absently opened the cage from the top and grabbed Max’s arm. He shuddered. The dark green hand was clammy and cold, with a faint musty odor that made his skin crawl. Before he could dwell on it he was yanked into the air with a shout, Ray manhandling him as easily as an adult with a child.
“Hey! Lemme go! Let go!” Max cried, trying to wiggle and hit Ray as much as he could.
“Settle down there. Don’t worry; we’ll have you strapped down and examined before you know it!” Ray said cheerfully. The octohumanoid slammed Max down on the table, and strapped the stunned teen’s arms and legs in with practiced ease. “How fortunate you only have four extremities! I still remember trying to examine a Calphreshi, what a nightmare. Twenty-seven limbs if you can believe it.”
“P-Please d-don’t hurt m-me.” Max said, trembling. He was utterly powerless now, helpless to escape. He struggled and tried to pull free to no avail.
“Relax! The table’s...hmm, quite vincilble now that I think of it. But I doubt you have the power of a Crusader-class battleship. So don’t worry. Don’t worry boy! This’s just an examination. I've never seen how a human operates before. I’ll take some samples and run some tests. Goodness knows I paid enough for the poachers. But don’t worry you’ll be fine!” Ray said, grabbing a tool from the dias. He leaned over Max and sunk the scalpel into his chest.
“Huh?” Max saw the instrument slice down, severing his t-shirt and skin in one go. He watched numbly, feeling the knife cut his skin off, the octohumanoid peeling it back while humming a cheerful tune. Then the pain hit.
“AaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHH!”
“Goodness you’re loud.” Ray muttered. However, it didn’t seem to bother him as he continued, using probes and forceps to poke and prod at Max’s insides, heedless of the mess. The blood and other fluids seemed to be absorbed by the table, draining away.
“Hmm. Cardiovascular structure, very interesting. Why, this indicates the presence of mitochondria! Huh? Why are you screaming?” he asked, tilting his tentacled head.
Max stared at him, blinking away the pain and tears. Ray seemed to be genuinely curious, not malicious.
“Hurts…” he whined, gasping for breath. He could feel, he could feel the air hitting his lungs, on the outside. The world was taking on a fuzzy white tint; that was the opposite of what air and lungs did.
“Oh! Yes I suppose it would. Ah well a little pain is nothing to progress!” Ray chuckled and began inserting probes into Max’s muscles and organs. When he felt them jabbing in, he mercifully passed out.
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Max groggily came too, feeling drained, weak, and pure agony. He was cold, too cold. His eyes rolled down. He whined as he saw one of his legs split open, same as his torso. A sickening amount of probes hooked up to displays and the dias sprouted from his chest, Ray eagerly going govern the results.
“Ooh! Take a look at this! Fascinating! It seems there are two types of muscle fibers-oh hello! You’re awake! Good heavens you must’ve been sleepy. Staying up past your bedtime eh?” Ray said, cheekily wagging a finger in admonishment.
“Kill...kill me…” was the only thing Max could say. The world was spinning. The only thing he could feel was pain, numb, and cold.
“Kill you…? My boy, why would I do that? I’m a peaceable sort after all.” He pressed a button on the dias. “Note: subject appears to be suicidal. Possibly depressed. Watch for changes in behavior.”
“Wuh...whuh…” Max could feel his body shutting down. The black was taking him again, this time for good. This was his end; to die alone, with no one knowing where he was in the ass end of the universe. At least his suffering was over. He could barely hear the machines beeping, barely cognizant enough to realize he was benign carried in Ray’s arms. As his consciousness faded into death, Max could just make out the whir of machinery and the sensation of falling.
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Max grunted, thoroughly soaked in some kind of warm teal liquid, draining out of the small, rounded chamber he was in, almost like a large cabinet. He blinked in the light. But not the light of Heaven; it was artificial, coming from...above?
“C’mon c’mon we gotta go! No time to laze about! There are experiments to perform, young man!” Max’s blood chilled. He looked up in horror to see a tentacled face reaching down for him. “It’s been three nanocycles! I thought you were gonna be in there all day!” Ray hoisted him up, strapping the astonished Max back onto the table.
“I-I’m alive...I’m fixed…” he said in a stupor. He stared at his body, his tattered clothes the only sign he’d been cut at all.
“Hmm? Oh yes! It’s thanks to my restoration tank, my own design of course.” Ray said proudly, puffing up his chest and pointing to the box in the corner, shutting itself off. “It can regenerate anything organic or not as long as it’s still alive, straight down to the subatomic level! Most useful wouldn’t you say?” He winked at Max. “Now then let’s resume! I’m quite curious about your digestive system. Seems far too long for what it needs! Let’s see if we can shorten it and make it more efficient…” The scalpel came down again, and Max’s screams echoed through the ship.