Max yawned and stretched. Another long day of dealing with customers. Fortunately, his wallet was a little heavier from tips, so the burger he carried in the styrofoam box wasn’t too much of a burden.

“Better off getting food somewhere else though, Maison de Papillion’s not cheap.” he muttered as he turned out the lights and went out back. He looked around the empty lot.

“You here?” he called. He looked right, no sign of a homeless kid down the other shops. That left the dumpster. “C’mon out. Your burger’s getting cold.” he said, approaching. The boy didn’t seem to be hidden among the piles of trash. Max raised an eyebrow. The way Jason had wolfed down the sandwich last night made Max sure he’d be here again for more. A guaranteed meal? He’d have taken it.

It was then he heard scuffling from around the building. Moving to investigate, he rounded the corner to see several men loading a semi-conscious Jason into a dull black van.

“Wha-” The tall man in a dark burgundy sweater with a wide-eyed smile plastered on his face pulled out a gun and shot him without hesitation. “Bwuh?”

“Nicholai! The hell, boss said no collateral on this one!” one of them snapped.

“And I didn’t, as per instructions.” Nicholai said calmly, precisely holstering the gun. Max stared down at his chest, where a dart was sticking out. The world was wobbling and spinning. Or was that him? “He’ll wake up in a few hours with a headache. He probably will not remember this, those tranqs mess with your head. Let us move now.” he said in a calm, even tone. They piled into the van and drove off, peeling out on the road.

Everything was going dark. Max felt incredibly sleepy. He struggled to stay on his feet, but it was a losing battle. He felt so heavy. Numb. Even dredging up the thought of movement was effort. He tried to fight and stay awake, call the police. That was the right thing to do. Not go around causing more panic than he already had.

As the world faded to black, he could only see Jason’s limp body loaded into the van. He could only remember the reported cases, and how many children were still missing. He could only remember the room with the table.

He could only reach down deep, down into every cell, every gene, and then-

“RAAAGH!”

His body exploded with power, bursting with muscle. With the sudden increase in mass his system easily absorbed the tranquilizer with barely a moment of dizziness. Once his head cleared, he saw the van disappearing down the road at high speed. He cracked his knuckles with a small smile. “Looks like you were right, kibvaghn. I can’t do anything else.”

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“Is he out? You sure he’s out, right?” the driver asked nervously, glancing between the semi-conscious boy and the street.

“Relax, he’s not gonna be up for half an hour at least. Focus on getting us back.” Ando said, rolling his eyes. Rookies. “Let me guess. First time dealing with a super?”

“I’ve, uh, never been so close to one before.” the driver admitted, stealing another glance.

“They’re really not that special, you know. Superpowers or not, all you have to do is identify the correct weakness in a super’s physiology and they die as easily as any man.” Nicholai piped up from the passenger’s seat. The whole car was quiet when he spoke, hands folded on his lap and wide eyes staring straight out the window, small grin still on his face. “There is no such thing as immortality in this world. All men scream the same when put to the knife.”

“Err...yeah.” Louie said, leaning as far back from him as he could. He finished cuffing the kid’s hands behind his back and slid away, keeping the boy between him and Nicholai as much as possible. If Nicholai noticed, he didn’t comment on it.

“Um, so...there’s no chance the heroes’ll come after us?” the driver asked.

“Don’t be dumb, Kevin. It’s same as the cops, too much to do, not enough time. We got enough firepower to deal with the scrubs around here anyway. Who’s gonna come after us, the deer dude? The angry guy, what’s his name, Angry Storm? Gimme a break.” Louie dismissed. “Besides, it’s just a homeless kid far as anyone knows. Who’s gonna care?”

WHAM!

The driver, Ando, and Louie scrambled as the van bucked up, the hood crumpling as a gigantic musclebound figure landed on it, snarling at them. The van swerved on the highway, careening into other cars...until the giant pushed them away. An enormous fist shattered the windshield, spraying them with glass.

“Let him go!” Max roared.

“Don’t stop.” Nicholai said, heedless of the wind whipping around him. He calmly drew a gun and shot at Max’s eye, barely six inches away. He flinched and fell off the van. “There. Even if it didn’t kill him, it’s hard to suppress the natural reaction to something in your eye. Drive faster please, Kevin.” he said placidly. The driver stared at him, agape. Suddenly, a knife was stabbing the spot just under his ear and behind his jaw. Not enough to pierce in, but enough to get Nicholai’s point.

“Ah, ah!”

“Do hurry, or I thrust in. I would not prefer to go to jail, or be subject to what that man wants to do to us.” Nicholai said, glancing in the rearview mirror.

Max had rolled onto the street, avoiding oncoming cars. He grunted and blinked, the bullet dropping from his eyelid. Wiping the tears from his eye, he shook his head. There wasn’t time for this!

He tensed his legs and launched himself in a sprint, desperate to keep the van in his sights. He weaved in and out of traffic, rising panic giving his feet wings.

“Stop!” he cried, and Kevin floored the pedal. Max raced to catch it, but both his legs and lungs were burning. If it were flat out, he could have caught up, but there were cars between them, and his shoes were starting to melt. Max grimaced. Time to get creative.

He sprang and jumped, soaring into the air. But not in a random direction. There was a building he could land on, benign his knees to absorb the impact and land as gentle as he could. He tilted his body and leapt off, leaving footprints in the concrete. His total ricochet happened in the span of a second, and he was hurtling towards the van again.

“Here he comes!” Louie cried, loading an assault rifle. From the windows came a spray of bullets into Max’s hulking form. He felt it like sleet, barely a sting. He landed next to the passenger door and swiped a mighty hand out, his fingers gouging through the thin metal and plastic like tissue paper.

“Damn it!” he bellowed, barely slowing it down. The van wobbled, but kept going. Once again he resumed the chase.

Suddenly the back doors flung open.

“No!”

“What the f-”

“Holy-!” Max gaped as an RPG was levelled at him, Nicholai smiling beatifically beneath it. He was durable enough to survive one of them, but a quick glance confirmed the other cars next to them, unable to escape the blast if he took it.

He jumped, as fast and as forward as he could. The wind whipped past him, but the rocket’s tip still tracked him up above the street. Max could make out, in horrible detail despite the speed, Nicholai’s finger pulling the trigger. The rocket accelerated in slow motion, the flame and plume of smoke as it rose to meet him iridescent in the night. No way to dodge, and he knew even if he made it through alive they’d use the distraction to get away with Jason. What would his kibvaghn do?

‘Here goes nothing!’ he thought as he willed his hand to move faster than it ever had before. He could feel the windshear as he swung his arm, catching the grenade.

“Hrk!” He twisted with everything he had, hurling the grenade into the sky where it burst between the buildings in a fiery explosion. Max grunted as his shoulder hit the roof, denting it; his work wasn’t done yet.

A hail of bullets rained up at him, but Max blocked them out, digging his hand into the gouges he’d made earlier and peeling the roof open like a tin can. He was greeted by terrified faces, an unconscious Jason, and Nicholai cheerfully reloading the RPG.

“Goodbye.” he said, swinging it up. Max ducked to the side. He wasn’t taking that again!

Bracing himself against the side, Max pumped his legs, slamming into the ground and tilting the van. He rode it like a bronco, skidding on the ground making sparks. By this time everyone on the road had given them a wide berth, and Max couldn’t be more grateful. It slid to a stop and Max slid off himself, glowering at the people inside. Nicholai tried to bring the RPG to bear, but Max yanked it out of his hands, launching it into the stratosphere to blow up.

“All of you are coming with me.” he said.

“Death before surrender.” Nicholai said in response, pulling the pin on a grenade and tossing it by the fuselage. There was no time. Max acted quickly, grabbing Jason and leaping into the night sky. The others stared at him aghast, flinching for the impact. A moment passed.

“Hey-we alive?” Louie said, opening his eyes.

“Precisely.” Nicholai said, crawling out of the van’s wreckage. There were sirens going off in the distance, growing closer. “I suggest, if you’d like to stay that way, we scatter and reconvene with Mr. Knightsbridge. He’ll want to know what went wrong, and I would hate to waste the genuine article in suicide.” He pocketed the fake grenade and pulled out a real one. The recovery team ran, and a moment later the van exploded, its’ passengers slipping away.