Max sighed, almost as if disappointed in the exchange as he pushed the pile of candy toward the park’s carousel. He looked up at Adrian, shaking his head. “He can’t resist seeing a good hand, even if he knows he can’t beat it. I think it could be a diagnosable disorder. Like a psychological need for closure, along with an aversion to ambiguity and an authoritarian demeanor.”
Hugh scowled. “What? I’m not like that. Am I?”
“Eh,” said Adrian, avoiding comment.
Hugh scoffed and gathered up the cards. “Maybe I just like seeing my younger son winning at life.” He pointed at the pile of candy as he stood. “Can I take one Choco-Malt for the road?”
“No,” said Max, sweeping the pile out of reach. “But you can go to the corner store and buy some more.” He pointed toward a small glass strip mall. “I’m pretty sure the nearest one is on Broad Street.”
“Fair enough.” Bending down, Hugh gave Max a squeeze around his shoulders. “Thanks for making some time for your old man. I’ll see you later.”
Max leaned into the embrace. “Night, Dad.”
Hugh grinned at Adrian as he emerged from the quarantine. “Are you back on patrols tonight?” he asked, giving Adrian a quick sideways hug.
“Yeah, but we’re only supposed to be called out for minor disputes for the next few days.”
“How are Danna and Ruby?”
“Fully recovered,” said Adrian. “Ready to get back work.”
“Well, I know you’re all young and eager, but I think this break might have been good for them, for all of you.” He yawned, though Adrian could tell it was fake. “I’m taking off. Been another long day on the Council. You boys stay out of trouble now.”
As soon as he had gone, Max groaned. “Sometimes I think he really does believe he lives in a comic book.”
“If anyone did, it would be Captain Chromium,” said Adrian. He watched as Max lifted up the roof of Merchant Tower and started loading the stash of candy into it. “Listen, Max, I have something to show you. Something kind of huge. At least, if it works it will be kind of huge.”
Max turned to him, interest piqued. “Are you drawing me a dragon? Because Turbo is cool, but a dragon…”
As if recognizing his name, the tiny velociraptor crept out from beneath the Stockton Bridge, where Max had made him a small nest out of shredded newspaper.
“Uh, no,” said Adrian.
Max wrinkled his nose. Popping open a bag of gummy worms, he fed one to the dinosaur. Adrian noticed the white bandages crossed over the back of his hand.
A prodigy doctor would have had that wound fully healed weeks ago …
He sighed. Max was fine. It didn’t matter.
“Go stand over there,” he said.
Max looked at where Adrian was pointing, but didn’t move. “Why?”
“Don’t argue, okay? If this works, it’s going to be the best thing that’s happened in headquarters since…” Adrian trailed off, stumped.
“Since they upgraded the virtual reality simulators with flight capabilities?” suggested Max.
Adrian cocked his head. “How’d you know about that?”
Max just shrugged and went to stand where Adrian had pointed. He picked up a tiny street sign as he passed Burnside.
“Okay,” said Adrian. “You have your emergency call button?”
Max’s thick brows furrowed with suspicion, but he lifted his arm, revealing the wristband he had worn ever since he’d crashed onto the city and driven the glass spire through his palm. He’d had it before, but until that night it never seemed important for him to wear it.
“Good. Wait there.”
“Where are you going?”
Jumpy with anticipation, and a bit of pride at his own intrepidness, Adrian headed toward the antechambers that separated the quarantine from the laboratories where Max’s blood and DNA had been studied, tested, and altered to make Agent N.
Through the glass, he noticed Max frowning. Adrian flashed him a thumbs-up that went unreturned, then pulled the door open to the tertiary chamber. In the next room, he bypassed the racks hung with protective suits, each one outfitted with chromium cuffs to offer some protection to the prodigy scientists and researchers who had to get close to Max on a regular basis.
Adrian approached the sealed door to the quarantine, where new signage had been added since the fiasco when Nova entered the quarantine in an attempt to help Max, the placards warning prodigies to stay away unless they had followed all required security measures. Adrian took a moment to reflect on whether or not this was a horrible idea. He was hopeful, but it was still a risk. A huge risk, if he was being honest.
What if the nature of Max’s power rendered prodigy artifacts useless?
Lifting a hand, Adrian pressed his fingers over the charm, tracing the symbol of the open palm and the curled serpent.
“Please let this work,” he whispered, then yanked open the door.
Max’s eyes went wide. He pushed himself off the wall, as if he were preparing to dive out of Adrian’s path, but there was nowhere for him to go that wouldn’t bring them closer together.
“What are you doing?” he yelled. “Get out of here!”
“Trust me,” said Adrian, taking a cautious step. Then another over the Scatter Creek bus terminal, which set him on a straight path down Drury Avenue. “I’m testing a theory.”
“A theory?” Max barked. “What theory? That you’ve lost your mind?” He reached for the call button on his wrist.
“Hold on! Don’t push it yet. I think … I think I might be immune to your power.”
Max laughed, but it lacked amusement. He pressed his back against the glass as Adrian took another step forward. “We know you’re not immune. So, come on, get out of here. This isn’t funny.”
“No, see this?” He lifted the charm. “It was in the artifacts warehouse. I think it might protect against powers like yours.”
Max gawked at him. “What?”
Adrian was a quarter of the way into the quarantine. He tried to recall at what point he had started feeling the effects of Max’s power when he’d rushed in to rescue Nova, but that night was a blur in his memory.
He kept walking. Slow, hesitant step after slow, hesitant step. He was barely breathing, waiting for the slightest warning sign that the pendant might be failing. He distinctly remembered the numbness that had entered his hands before. The way his body had felt like it was moving through molasses. The sensation of a plug being pulled up from his navel, and all his strength draining out through it.
How close had he been to Max when it started? Surely he was closer now, and yet he felt completely normal. Twitchy and nervous, but still normal.
He was more than halfway. He passed Merchant Tower. Strode the length of City Park.
Max’s eyes narrowed, fearful, but curious too. His focus was glued to Adrian’s feet, watching him pace through the city they’d built over the years.
Adrian reached the place where Nova had collapsed. The nearby block of buildings still bore signs of the fall, though the shards of broken glass had been removed.
The forgotten street sign dropped from Max’s hand, clattering to the floor.
“If you lose your powers because of this,” Max whispered, “I’m not taking any responsibility for it.”
“You shouldn’t take responsibility for it anyway,” said Adrian. He was constantly working to dispel Max’s beliefs that he had done anything wrong. It wasn’t his fault he was this way. It wasn’t any prodigy’s fault.
Three-quarters of the way into the quarantine, Adrian began to smile.
Still petrified, Max didn’t return it.
“I feel fine,” said Adrian, unable to keep some of the disbelief from his own tone.
He came to a stop three paces away from Max. Close enough that he could reach out and put his hands on his shoulders.
And so he did.
Max flinched, at first ducking from the touch, but then froze. His eyes went wide
.
Starting to laugh, Adrian pulled Max into a hug, crushing him in one exuberant embrace before letting go. “I feel fine!” he said again, ruffling Max’s unruly hair. “Great, even. I can’t believe it worked!” His laugh got louder. “Except … I can believe it. Because of course it worked. I totally knew it would work. By the way, you need a haircut.”
“Draw something,” Max demanded, ignoring his glee. “Quick.”
Adrian took out his marker, still beaming. “Sure thing, Bandit. Any requests?”
Max shook his head, and Adrian stepped closer to the window and drew the first thing that came to mind—a Renegade pin, like the one he gave Nova at the trials.
When he pulled it fully formed from the glass, Max gave a little squeak of shock. “How?”
Adrian met his eye, and beneath the stunned disbelief, he could see the start of possibilities filtering into the kid’s mind.
For almost Max’s entire life, he had been kept separate from the ones who loved him, everyone but Hugh, anyway. And Hugh may have loved Max, but he was so busy, trying to squeeze his fatherly responsibilities in between Council meetings and public appearances and the occasional heroics. When was the last time Max had sat next to someone and played video games and ate snacks into the wee hours of the morning?
Never. That was when. He had never experienced anything like that before.
“I have the best idea,” said Adrian. “Tomorrow, I’m going to bring some chips and soda and a super-greasy pizza and I’m going to completely slaughter you in an all-night Crash Course III marathon. Unless you’d rather, I don’t know, learn to play backgammon or something, and then we’ll do that. Doesn’t matter. It’s up to you. You let me know.”
Max shook his head, bewildered. “Adrian, how?” he repeated, more forcefully this time. He grabbed the medallion and flipped it over, examining the back, which contained a mirror image of the protective hand. “What is this? How does it work?”
“I don’t know!” said Adrian, still beaming. “It protects from diseases and poisons and stuff, so I just thought—”
“I’m not poison! I’m not a disease!”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
“It shouldn’t work!” Max dropped the pendant. “It shouldn’t.”
“But it does. And next, I’m going to give myself a tattoo of this symbol,” said Adrian, pointing. “That will make me permanently immune, and then I can give this charm to anyone who wants to visit you. Can you imagine the look on Ruby’s face? And Oscar, and Danna? They’ll be so excited to come see you. And Simon, of course.” He gasped, leaning forward. “Dude. Simon. He’ll be … I don’t even know. I bet he’ll cry.”
“The Dread Warden crying?” said Max. “Let’s get it on film.” He said it jokingly, but Adrian could tell he was overwhelmed, and on the verge of tears himself. “Did you say tattoo?”
“Oh. Yeah. That’s how I do … you know. All that other stuff I do.”
Scanning Adrian’s shirt, Max stammered, “You give yourself tattoos? And that’s how you—”
Adrian held up his hands. “That’s not important right now.” He swooped his arms around Max’s waist and lifted him off his feet, letting out an excited whoop. “Vitality Charm! Visitors! Think of the possi”—his voice hiccupped as he glimpsed a figure in the lobby beyond the glass—“bilities.”
“Put me down!”
He set Max down and took a step back, clearing his throat. “Visitors like … Nova?”
Max spun around.
Nova was standing not far from the lobby’s information desk, staring up into the quarantine with her mouth hanging open.
“Act normal,” Adrian whispered, his glee quickly overcoming his surprise. He elbowed Max in the side and they both raised their hands and waved.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“EXPLAIN,” SAID NOVA the second she stomped onto the sky bridge. Her arms were folded tight over her chest, her brain churning through a hundred explanations, each more absurd than the last. Adrian was inside the quarantine. And smiling. And apparently fine.
Then the pendant around his neck caught the light and Nova gasped, launching herself forward. She pushed her finger into the glass wall. “That?” she barked in disbelief. “Really?”
“Really,” Adrian confirmed, flashing more teeth than she had ever seen him flash before. He was practically luminescent with joy.
He started to explain his theory and the research he had done on the Vitality Charm and why he’d guessed it would protect him from Max’s power, but there were so many pauses and jumps in his story that Nova struggled to follow it all.
Plus, he couldn’t seem to stop laughing. It was partly the laugh of a mad scientist who hadn’t fully expected his latest experiment to be successful, and partly the laugh of a guy who could finally hang out with his little brother, without a glass wall dividing them.
He kept reaching out to ruffle Max’s hair, or punch him lightly in the shoulder, or wrap his elbow around Max’s neck and put him in a pretend chokehold. Max didn’t seem to know quite how to respond to this outpouring of brotherly affection, but he kept smiling. A smile as full of disbelief as Nova felt, but a smile all the same.
There was something endearing about the way Max was watching Adrian. A bit of awe, coupled with an abundance of hope.
Yesterday, Max was a prisoner and an outcast. Valuable and loved, yes, but also an anomaly. A science experiment. A lab rat. He knew it as much as anyone.
“What about Agent N?” said Nova.
Adrian turned to her, startled. “What about it?”
“It was created using Max’s blood. Will the charm protect people from it too?”
Adrian’s eyebrows knit together over his glasses. He peeked at Max, but Max just shrugged and said, “Don’t look at me.”
“I don’t know,” said Adrian. “It might.” He opened his mouth to say more, but hesitated. He studied Max again, then looked back up at Nova. “Yes. I’m pretty sure it would.”
“And does the Council know about this? They’ve put so many resources into developing Agent N … and there was this necklace in the vault the whole time, able to protect someone from it? There could be other things too. First the Captain is immune to Max, and now this?” She bit her tongue to stop herself from talking, worried that her eagerness would show.
Protection from Max. Protection from Agent N.
Maybe the Anarchists didn’t need to be quite so worried about this new weapon after all.
“I’m convinced no one knew about the medallion and what it could do,” said Adrian, “otherwise someone else would have taken it out of the vault as soon as Agent N was revealed. And you heard them at the presentation. There are no known antidotes. And invincibility, like my dad has, is just about the rarest superpower ever documented. No one else is like him. There’s no reason to think his powers can be replicated, at least not where Max is concerned. There might be other things that could act as a ward against Max’s power, but as far as I could find, this is the only artifact of its kind.”
Maybe Adrian was right, but even so, the existence of this charm gave her hope that Agent N wasn’t the death knell for the Anarchists.
She wondered if such a charm could protect others from a power like hers, too. As an Anarchist, Nova most often used her ability to put people to sleep as a weapon, but sleep in itself didn’t weaken a person, beyond making them vulnerable. If anything, sleep helped to restore them. It was an interesting puzzle, and one she would have to consider at length if Adrian shared the discovery of the Vitality Charm with any more Renegades.
“Could I use the charm sometime?” she said, plastering a smile to her face. “It would be easier to help Max reconstruct the broken parts of his city if I could go in there.”
“Sure!” they said in unison, and the way Max’s eyes brightened made Nova’s heart surge.
“But,” said Adrian, “I think we should give it to Simon first.” He grimaced apologetically. “It’s just s
ymbolic, but … I know it would mean a lot to him.”
She refused to let her smile fade. “Of course. I understand.”
Adrian’s expression was so endearing Nova felt a little guilty for contemplating how the charm could serve her purposes over Max’s.
“I know it doesn’t change everything,” said Adrian. “You’re still stuck in the quarantine. You still can’t go out into the world. But … it’s something, right?”
“It’s a lot,” said Max. “Even just…” As he gestured between himself and Adrian, his control over his emotions started to crumble. “This has been … This is…”
Adrian wrapped an arm around Max’s shoulders and pulled the kid against his side.
Nova turned away. She felt like she was intruding. Not just because she wasn’t a part of their family, but because she wasn’t even really a Renegade. She didn’t deserve to enjoy this moment with them.
The velociraptor, who had disappeared into his nest, emerged and made a melancholy cooing sound, poking at Max’s ankle with its needlelike talons. Wiping his eyes, Max stooped and picked it up, pointedly avoiding Nova’s gaze.
“Max,” she said, hesitantly, “why … why don’t you just live with a non-prodigy family?”
Adrian flinched. “I’ve thought that, too, but…” His face was tight with pain, but Max only shrugged.
“It’s okay,” he said, resigned. “I’m fine here.”
“No, you’re not,” said Nova. Her fists clenched. “You’re a prisoner! You’re a—a—”
Adrian shot her a warning look and she bit back the words on the tip of her tongue.
You’re a science project to these people.
“It’s not safe for me to be out in the world,” said Max, letting the tiny dinosaur nibble at the tip of his thumb. “I could cross paths with a prodigy at any time, and it wouldn’t be fair to them. And also, if news ever got out about who I am and what I can do … it would make me a target. There are still villains out there who would want to use me for their own purposes—”
“Or anti-prodigy zealots who would love to get their hands on a kid who can wipe out superpowers,” added Adrian.
Archenemies Page 20