all alone

Chapter One

Max was eternally grateful for his old fascination with Dark Mayhem.

It had enabled him to narrow down where Phoebe must have been hiding out during their Hawaiian vacation. At first, a small part of him had been annoyed with the timing of her villainous possession. Their family was so rowdy and unpredictable, but their trip had actually been a welcomed surprise. He had initially wanted to surf and avoid nearly his entire family, maybe even pick up a hot chick or two—and while he kind of knew he'd end up being preoccupied with Phoebe in the end, never had he imagined it to be under such awful circumstances.

Quickly his slight exasperation had morphed into worry and concern, although he didn't want to say it aloud too often. He had a reputation to uphold...which was rapidly falling the more he pushed himself to go after Phoebe.

Her (or rather, Dark Mayhem's) hiding spot was well underground, but still away from any volcanoes, which was unexpected. Weighing the facts, Max could only surmise that even though Phoebe enjoyed warm weather, perhaps Dark Mayhem was intrigued by the cold, more like Evilman what with his IceBase and all.

He allowed himself to smirk for a second, descending deeper below the crowded vacationers above, closer and closer to Phoebe. Hawaii's gotta be a challenge for ya, huh, you old hag? he thought smugly.

When the stairs he was heading down opened up into a larger, lit room, he knew he had arrived. His sister wasn't anywhere to be seen, but she had retreated as soon as he realized what had happened and went to inform their family. They were counting on him to bring her back, and he was counting on himself to keep the Thundertwins together.

As soon as he got her back home, he'd enforce another Thundertwin swear to insure the other's safety in situations like this. He'd try to save her every single time, with or without one, but it would still help him sleep at night.

"Phoebe?" he called out, cringing once the word bounced and echoed off the cavernous walls. "Hey, Pheebs, you in here? Still being possessed by Dark Mayhem and all?"

It was times like this he really wished he didn't always have to sound so sarcastic.

A joyless laugh echoed from some corner of the room. He whipped around, assuming it came from the north corner. He was right.

There must have been more tunnels, because Phoebe emerged out of something thicker than just the shadows. Her red streaks glowed in the luminescent lights and his stomach nearly turned in on itself when her matching eyes flashed at him.

"Hello, Max," she began, the smirk crawling onto her face showing she was still possessed. Never, never had she ever looked at him like that. While his smirk mostly succeeded in irritating whoever it was aimed at, hers looked semi-similar to bedroom eyes. "What brings you here so soon?

He cut his eyes at her and wisecracked, "Oh, you know; the bus. They make frequent stops here."

Her eyes twinkled. "It's a shame you had to turn into...what you are now. You would've been a great asset to him. So snarky. Really gets under people's skin."

Crows feet formed by his eyes as he smiled involuntarily. He really did live for their banter. "Yeah, well, that's my main motive with you, Phoebe. Maybe if you come back with me Barb will ground me for it."

Phoebe's face went blank, emotionless. "I'm sure she would. But that's not going to happen."

She has been pacing when she first showed herself, but now even her newly acquired powers contained themselves and she was standing in place.