It had only been a week since the burial and things had taken a drastic turn. They had graduated and Max spent more and more time on the streets and in the gym than his restaurant since he inherited it. Ramon and Jessica were worried about him as they felt he was overworking himself. He had answered more global and national calls in a week than he had ever done since the first day he dawned the suit, from the Artic to South Africa, to Alaska and Russia, he had appeared in fifty percent of the world's countries. Most people felt safer, and Villains were more careful praying not to run into him. His efforts pushed him up the hero ranking as he held a solid number four spot over taking Wave, Frosty and Violet only behind Slade, Blazer and Gears.
Ramon and Jessica decided what you might call an intervention even though it wasn't really like it. They knew Max would be home now as he just pulled two oil tankers through thick sheets of ice around Greenland. They opened the door, and they were greeted by fast food packages and cans and cans of Power Horse.
"What happened here" Ramon said shocked at what the house had become.
"We have to talk some sense into him, or he would die from his intake of Power Horse" Jessica added.
They walked through the house as if there were land mines with cans littered everywhere. They walked up stairs to his room and found him fast asleep snoring loudly.
"I guess even Power Horse couldn't save him from the effects of pulling two oil ships" Jessica commented.
"Ramon, let's get to work"
"What?" Ramon said with a confused look.
"The hell Jess, you made clean up the house" Ramon lamented resting on his sofa.
"We had to help him" she said.
"He could have done it himself. Super speed remember"
"Well after doing this, he would have no choice but to listen to us"
As if it were rehearsed, Max walked down the staircase with his footsteps echoing as he walked down.
"I thought I heard voices" he remarked using his left hand to rub his left eye.
He was wearing an F1 Mercedes T-shirt, blue jeans and red shoes.
"Bro's looking tired today" Ramon said.
"The wicked never rest and neither shall I" Max said.
"Take a seat Max, we have something serious to discuss" Jessica said taking an authoritative tone.
Max raised his head up and ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. He walked to the sofa and sat down.
"I hope it's good news" Max said with a frown.
"We've come here to ask you to take this hero stuff easy" Jessica stated.
"You can't hit full throttle on this, you to rest or your body is going to give up on you" Ramon added full of concern.
"I was designed and bred to be a killing machine, I can tank just about anything the world has to offer so I know my limits and I'm smashing them every day. As for taking it easy, I will not stop until I catch that bastard and kill him myself" Max said with all seriousness.
"You need to take a break bro, relax and take another look at this thing with a fresh mind. Maybe then you can finally track him down" Jessica reasoned.
"I will n-no..." Max said with his voice becoming drowsy. ".....n-no...not" Max said before blacking out.
"What the hell, Max?!" Ramon said springing to his feet.
"Guess he doesn't know his limits" Jessica said.
Her thoughts were soon disrupted as Ramon fell on the couch as well knocked out.
"What's going on?" she yelled panicking before she also blacked out as well.
All three were shot in the neck with tranquillizer darts.
...................
Hours later, Max's eyes opened slowly, and he looked at the floor, he deciphered he wasn't in his home anymore. Steel sheets covered the floor, and it was a big metal box with long rectangular windows on the side. He was restrained on a metal chair with straps binding his arms and feet to the chair. He struggled to get out, but nothing was working, he tried to activate his powers, but nothing happened.
"What sorcery is this?" he thought.
Ramon and Jessica were already awake tied up back-to-back sitting on the floor. They rested on a metal pillar and were twenty feet away from a control panel of some sort, all they knew that it controlled whatever was going on in that box. A guard was stationed next to them to stop them from trying anything funny. As the two sat down each thinking of a way of escape, two escort guards walked forward from out a door and behind them followed Clinton Brown and Sun, whom they knew as Titan. Clinton didn't face them, and Sun looked them in the eye and smiled, they were escorted into the box and then the two guards walked away.
"My precious project Maverick, you have grown very well" Clinton said.
"Who the hell are you, what on earth do you want with me!" Max rebelled.
"Is that how you speak to your creator?" Sun said stepping out from behind him.
Max's face was full of shock, he looked at the man and pictures of his face flashed before his eyes from the pictures on his file.
"Clinton, Clinton Brown" Max said.
"So, you do remember me" he said with joy.
"I don't remember shit" he barked.
"So how do you know his name?" Sun asked.
"I have my ways" Max answered. "So tell me, why have you brought me here?!" he questioned.
"What other reason would we have than to get your head straight" Sun said.
"Then why did you involve my friends?"
"We cannot risk our secret getting out; hence we need to eliminate all loose ends" Clinton said with a devilish tone.
"Like you killed my parents?!!" Max said full of anger as he tried to break free.
"Easy there, their death wouldn't be like your parents, but boy did I enjoy that. The way they screamed and begged for mercy was music to my ears" Sun said walking down memory lane.
"I'LL KILL YOU!!" he yelled.
"Try it brother" Sun said before laughing.
Max tried as he might pulling on the straps, but he couldn't break free.
"Try as you might, you will never get out of that chair" Clinton said. "The panels of this room emit small portions of gamma rays. They are strong enough to deactivate your powers and make you normal but not strong enough to affect a normal human" he explained.
Max's eyes popped open; Alex's theory was right. His weakness is gamma rays.
Ramon was able to wiggle the handkerchief out of his mouth so that he could communicate with Jessica.
"Jess" he whispered. "You have to reach into my trouser above my left pocket and pull out the little pocketknife I keep inside"
Her eyes popped open at the fact that she would have to reach into his pants to escape. She wiggled the handkerchief over her mouth quickly to protest.
"Hell, no Ramon" she reprimanded him with a whisper.
"Our freedom depends on it" Ramon whispered back with their guard busy on his phone watching funny cat videos.
"I won't" she persisted.
"Look Jess, the guard is distracted, and God knows what they are doing to Max in there, so we have to do this now" Ramon boldly stated.
Jessica could argue no further she closed her eyes as she prepared herself mentally for what was about to happen. Inside, Clinton had called for a scientist to man the control panel, as he neared, he saw Jessica's hand in Ramon's trouser. He paused for a moment and took in the sight as they looked at him eye to eye, he bowed his head and shook it before walking over to the control panel.
"Youths these days" he said under his breath.
"Good going Ramon, now he's going to think we're doing something really stupid" Jessica whispered though her voice carried anger.
She finally got a hold of the pocketknife and pulled it out.
"Great, now cut us free" Ramon said.
Max wasn't as fortunate with Clinton initiating operation restore and wipe. First, they were going to restore his memories then wipe out the ones he had from when he escaped. In the process of analyzing his brain to see if it was strong enough to go through the operation, they discovered that his memories weren't wiped but locked. Something like that was prone to happen considering the state at which the memory wipe happened.
"Commencing memory unlock" the man said.
At the push of a button, a helmet dropped down from the roof with many cables attached to it.
"Just stay put, this won't take long" Clinton said with a grin.
"Once he has his memories back, we can finally start project world domination" Sun said grinning as well.
"As long as I can breathe, you will never, and I mean never, put such a despicable plan into action" Max said as the helmet was placed on his head.
"Don't worry Maverick, soon, you won't even remember this conversation" Clinton said.
A whirring sound was made as the system booted up, blue glowed where the cables met the helmet. The scientist pressed some random buttons before initiating the process. Max screamed and groaned in pain, this pain was excruciating, it was like nothing he had ever felt before in his life. Hearing the way Max screamed, Jessica put more effort and cut the rope binding them. Without a word said their objective was set, get Max free.
Ramon looked around and found nothing to use and hit the guard.
"Guess I have to do this old school" Ramon gulped.
Ramon sneeked up on the guard who was too engrossed on his phone to notice that they had escaped. Ramon had planned to hit him hard in the temple after reading up on ways to knock someone out months prior to now. Ramon prepared to hit him getting as much room as needed.
Crack!
That was the sound of a broken neck, Ramon had hit him too hard and not only knocked him out but the force of his elbow caused the guard's neck to snap. The scientist turned to see Ramon next to a dead body.
Whack!
Jessica hit him in the back of his head with the sole of her shoe buying them more time.
"I told you to just knock him out" Jessica said.
"How was I supposed to know that swing would break his neck" Ramon said shrugging his shoulders.
They got to the control panel without a clue on what to do.
"What do we do now, we don't even know which button to push" Jess said.
"Don't worry, we do" Ramon said with a grin.
Max jerked vigorously with smoke rising from his head but sooner than expected, the process stopped.
"That was quick" Sun said. "I guess they don't want a repeat of last time" Sun added.
Not only did the process stop but the gamma rays emitted ceased.
"Ramon, I guess you really are lucky!" Jessica cheered.
"I'm not that lucky, all I did was button mash" Ramon said.
"But it worked, didn't it?"
"I guess so" he answered.
"Clinton, we have a problem" Sun stated.
"What is it now?" he asked annoyed.
"My powers are back up" he said.
Clinton looked stunned knowing that this situation wasn't good for either of them. Both turned towards Max hearing heavy breathing, glowing red eyes and a destroyed helmet were the first signs that things had not gone according to plan at all. Max had a wild rageful look in his eyes and his eyebrows were V like in shape, his fingers were turned into fists with veins on them and things were about to get ugly.
"Oh God" Clinton commented.