บท 4: The Lecture

Stepping into the house, he turned and used his telekinesis to close the door. Turning around, he came face to face with a disappointed Hank, an exasperated Barb, and a smiling Phoebe.

"You were doing so well. So well! And you skipped school!? Didn't even ditch a class, you left the building!" Barb yelled. He wouldn't refer to her as 'mom' in his head.

"I am very disappointed in you." Hank added.

"'Shocker.'" Maxie spoke sarcastically, of course they couldn't hear him.

"Where did you even go!?" Barb asked/yelled. Phoebe's face turned to one of confusion as she looked at what he was holding.

"The mall." Max replied with a straight face. This was not bothering him at all.

"The mall!? The MALL!?" Barb yelled angrily, and he could see slight steam coming out of her ears.

Hank lightly grabbed her shoulders and told her to, "Calm down, Barb, you're steaming." Then Hank looked at Max. "You skipped school, to go to the mall? What were you even there to get? What did you go there to buy?" Hank asked.

Max showed what was in his hands. "Phones." He answers dryly.

Then a phone starts ringing, and all three of them move over to the phone in order to look at the caller ID. It says, 'Son'.

"Did you steal those, Max?" Phoebe asks, looking at him in shock.

He thinks really hard, telegraphing the fact that he was about to lie, before answering, "No." He needed to get in trouble. He had to. He had to establish an annoyance with Phoebe, so that she would leave him alone. If he blatantly lies, and annoys her by doing this on day one, it would help. He also needed to take something of Cherry's that Phoebe would know is Cherry's once they become friends, purely to establish a need in Phoebe to keep Cherry FAR away, which would in turn keep Phoebe away.

"Max!" Hank chastises. "Superheroes don't steal." Good thing he's going to be an Anti-Hero.

"'Good thing I'm a villain then.'"

"And like I have said before, I'm not a superhero." He goes to walk to his left, but Barb steps in front of him

"How did you get home? You're not panting enough to have walked." She says.

"Someone drove me home." He reveals casually.

"You led a non-supe to our house!?" Hank exclaims.

"Relax, I didn't bring her IN the house. No biggie." Max shrugs.

"Her?" questions Phoebe with a confused expression, again. Her thoughts were probably 'how did Max make friends with a girl'?

"No biggie!? She could come back!" Hank yelled.

"You skipped school WITH a classmate? Bad enough you're doing it on your own, but you're dragging someone else down with you?" Barb asked, clearly disappointed.

"She suggested we hang out sometime. I chose then." Max shrugs again.

"Did she help you steal those phones?" Phoebe asked.

"No." They breathe a sigh of relief. "This was actually what SHE took." Their eyes widen. "I was snatching wallets, not phones. Easier to grab without them noticing."

Then he walks past Hank, heading to the basement stairs. He hears them follow behind him.

"Get over this phase, Max!" Hank yells, following behind him. Max uses his telekinesis to open the door then walks in, turning quickly and using it to shut the door before using his freeze breath to seal it shut. The only way to get down was the basement window, which he was also freezing shut, or the slide. He doesn't allow Hank a response.

He walks down, and throws the phones on his bed. Looking at Colosso's cage, he kneels down in front of it. "Have you been fed today?" he asks, looking at the rabbit. Then he heard a bang on the door, and someone whining about their hands.

"Dad, he sealed it with ice from the inside. The only way to get in is to melt it, which I can't do from this side of the door." Phoebe tells him.

"There's a window to the room outside that you could slip through?" He hears Barb suggest, and he turns to the door with a raised eyebrow.

"Did you freeze the door?" Colosso asks, sounding like he's laughing.

"Yes, and I'm about to freeze the window. One minute." He moves over to the window, and deliberately waits until he can see Phoebe's feet before using his freeze breath, and sealing the window as well.

"This one's free- and now it's not. Max!" Phoebe whined, then he heard her walk away.

"That takes care of them for the night." then he turns to Colosso. "Now answer the question."

"I fed myself. I might be a rabbit, but I'm not helpless." He gives Max a bit of a glare.

"Good. Now, sleep." He used his telekinesis and folds the blanket down, hiding him from view. He looked at where the slide is, only to learn that it's completely open, and that the slide was installed.

Stepping onto the slide, he climbed up before getting to the hatch, then freezing it as well. He slid down, then hopped off before moving to a box. Opening it, he grabbed a device before climbing up the slide, then he had to focus.

Concentrating, he used his heat breath to make a little hole to put the device in, then he hit the button before sliding down and hopping off of his bed.

"'What was all of that?'" questioned Maxie.

"'Nobody interrupts me, I can break into these phones, and I can make as much noise as I need to because I have a reason to. I'm mad at them, and I'm working off my anger. I am going to unpack, try to train the powers we have a little bit to learn more tricks, and start working on setting up all of the technology.'" Max answered.

"'That is... an amazing plan. Why didn't I think of that?'" Maxie asked.

"'Because you think too small. You think short term, while I think long term. I think months to years ahead. The farthest ahead you think is next week.'" Max answers again. He knows when it comes to strategy and plan of attack, he was a genius, it's why he was promoted so quickly. He was very tactical, it's why he always got out of life threatening situations, some of which seemed impossible.

"'Really?'"

Max responded, "'Maxie, every single action up to this point has been in service if a higher goal. You really think suggesting to go rob people at the mall was spontaneous? There was a reason for that. Now, quiet. Time to unpack.'"

"'Fine.'"

~~Time Skip~~

Hours later, it was around dinner time and he had finished unpacking. Now only to set up the technology in his room. Wires, self destruct feature, walls that slid down (he was still adding that), plus many more that he had to install.

The device he placed in the ice had the water from said ice sliding down the slide, landing in a cup he had on the bed. The slide was completely dry.

He grabbed the cup and walked to his window, using his heat breath to unfreeze the window. He hadn't been able to practice his powers, by the way.

Walking up the stairs, he melted the ice coating his door before opening it and stepping out.

Moving to the kitchen, he didn't spare a glance at his family as he poured the water out in the sink. He also set the cup in the sink.

Turning to his family, Billy noted, "You look different." a second. "Is that a new shirt?" He grinned at his older brother, or at least he thought this was his older brother. He wasn't going to correct him.

"Oh, look, the guy that ditched school to steal from people at the mall." Phoebe glared as she said it.

Nora asked, "You went to the mall to steal stuff? Really? That was the best you could do?" She asks.

Max gives Nora a look. "I had a girl stealing stuff with me. I had to have her comfortable so we could increase our take. Hence, the mall." Max answers with a shrug.

Nora nods before replying, "Makes sense. Carry on." Max moves to the table and grabs a plate before putting what he wants of dinner on it.

After grabbing his silverware, he started walking to his slides hatch with the plate, passing Barb on the way.

"And where do you think you're going?" The former superhero asks.

"To eat dinner in my Lair?" He responds, though it sounds more like a question, and that was by design. He was going to call it a lair until later on, when he had a reason to stop.

"Uh, no, you're not. Because I am going to be watching you-" Barb was cut off when Max used his freeze breath to stop her in place.

Hitting the button with his foot, he slid down the slide while balancing the plate, landing in his room. He used his telekinesis to hit keys on one of the computers on his desk.

Inputting his password, which was his daughters name (he changed the password, Maxie asked why, he didn't get an answer) so that nobody would ever be able to guess it, he went to a streaming service.

He glared when he realized, unlike in his past life, he didn't have access to all of the streaming sites he had anymore. So instead, he went to a pirate site. Everything was free, even new releases, all in high definition.

Turning on a standup comedy, he watched it with glee, huffing in amusement as he ate.

In the middle of eating, he heard shoes stomping downstairs and he groaned, loudly. He recognized the steps from the show, and because he's heard what sound Phoebe's steps make when she walks.

"What do you want, Dweebie?" Max asks, not looking back at her. However, he does use his telekinesis to pause his comedy show.

"What's up with you? You're acting meaner than usual, Colosso is still covered up by that blanket, and you shaved your hair down. Along with getting up and leaving for school before me! You even froze mom!" She complains.

"New city, new me." Is all he says, taking another bite. He can practically hear her eyes roll as she turns around and starts marching up the stairs, Max allowing himself to smirk just a little bit.

Then he unpauses his show.

~~After Dark~~

Everyone went to bed awhile ago, so now he is in the driveway, training. He meant it. At this moment, he was seeing how many combat tips he could carry over from his previous life into this one. The brain merging might RETAIN all knowledge, but can a body that has not been trained or conditioned using that knowledge PERFORM as well as his previous one?

Turns out, mostly. Some moves required him to be at his previous height, six-foot-one, while this body was only five-foot-eight, so, big difference. He couldn't physically intimidate anyone, at least not yet. He had to sign up for the gym, after getting a decent job.

Or he could just electronically rob billionaires. He probably could. He could disguise it as a bill they had to pay, and they'd probably pay it without looking, because, well, they ARE billionaires.

Yeah, he was going to do that.

After finishing up, he grabs his phone and checks a text message he had, which was confusing because it was about twelve in the morning.

It was from Tara. "*I heard about a college party going on, wanna crash it?*" She also sent a winky face with it, and a lot of laughing emojis.

He quickly responds, "*Why not? Let me get changed, then you can meet me out front of my house.*"

He gets a thumbs up as he goes back inside. Quickly wiping sweat off, he uses his telekinesis to remove the blanket and unlock Colosso's cage, giving him freedom to move.

"Why are you changing? It's twelve A M!" Colosso exclaims, and he nods.

"I know. I'll probably be out, message me on my watch if something's up." Max throws on a touch screen watch, setting a video camera up, along with a press button in order to call. Max moves to the window before opening it, then turning to look at him. "Going to crash a college party with a friend, wish me luck." Then he ducks out, letting the window close behind him as he smirks.

Quickly jumping into the car and throwing a seatbelt on, he pointed his finger forward, so the blonde next to him took off with a laugh.

This was going to be a fun ride.