Page 69 of Archenemies

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… Icanbelieve 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-nightCrash Course IIImarathon. 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 yourselftattoos? And that’s how you—”

Adrian held up his hands. “That’s not important right now.” Heswooped 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!”

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