Not Dreams, Reality

Chapter 8, Fire Power!

Max's POV

OW! MY LEG! Of all times, why did I have to get stuck in a bear trap NOW?! I grumble to myself as I see the others run ahead of me, and hear the guards getting closer to me. I'm also blushing a little from embarrassment because I squealed like a girl. I try to pry the bear trap off my leg but I'm unable to do it before the guards, Nova, and Star catch up to me. The evil twins giggle evilly for a second before hitting me in the head with a baseball bat.

When I come to, I'm in a cell. My leg isn't in a bear trap anymore but it's still bleeding. My head hurts so I rest my hand on it but feel something sticky. I move my hand infront of my face and- yep. I'm bleeding. Juuuuuust great. "So you're awake, huh?" I look over to see Star standing on the other side of the bars. Atleast I think it's Star. Everything I see is blurry and everything I hear is muffled. "Wha... what do you... want?" I say, trying and failing at sounding threatening. It's hard not to pause in the middle of your sentences when you're having a hard time thinking. Star giggles and ignores my question. She turns to someone at her side, not sure who, and asks, "is the machine ready?" Whoever is next to her says "not yet, ma'am! But it should be ready and able to extract his powers soon!" Star laughs evilly at this. "Perfect!" She says cheerfully as they both walk away.

I'm still having trouble thinking and processing what just happened. Extract powers? What does that me- then it clicks and I quickly stand up, causing my headache to get worse. Next thing I know, I see myself pouting and surrounded by flames while Adam and Jin try to get to me. I can physically see that this other me is getting more and more angry until their hands catch on fire and they- I mean I, somehow manage to say something calmly and calm down, causing the flames to disappear. Suddenly I'm back in the real world and my headache isn't as bad but it's still there. I limp towards the bars, grab onto them tight, and close my eyes. I just need to think about annoying things, right? Let's see... Being called Mad Max is extremely annoying but it doesn't make me that angry. I remember all of Adam's silly antics but they were more funny than annoying. What truly makes me angry then?

I open my eyes, about to give up when I see nothing had happened, when I think of something.

~~~~~

"Ross!" I run over to my best friend, Ross, and hug him. Stupid bullies, always making fun of him and our friends! Wait, I'm not allowed to say stupid, DON'T TELL MOM!!! Ross was crying but instantly smiles when he sees me. "Max!" He hugs me back tightly. For being a couple years younger than me, he had a surprisingly strong grip. "What's wrong, Ross?" He has to look up at me since I'm taller than him and I can see tears in his derpy, adorable eyes. "They made fun of my eyes again..." I got extremely angry from this. I made a deal with those jerks! I gave them all my cookies and they agreed to leave Ross alone! I see Jin and Adam walking down the sidewalk towards us. Adam was running circles around Jin and Jin was reading a math book. Nerd. "Ross, go to Adam and Jin. I'll be right back, okay?" I smile and Ross and he smiles back, nods, and runs off towards Jin and Adam. Once he runs around I make a break for where those jerks usually meet up and start yelling at them. "Hey! What's your problem?! We had a deal!" They stared at me for a second before bursting out laughing. I look at them confused, "what's so funny?" The leader of their group says, "The pipsqueak actually thought we would leave that stupid kid alone!" The whole groups laughs more at this. I can feel anger boiling in my chest and next thing I know I was throwing and dodging punches left and right. After one of them got knocked out and the leader lost a tooth or two they ran off.

That's how I got my reputation as the big bad bully of the town.

I'm not too happy about that, I don't want everyone to be scared of me!

But...

if it'll keep them from messing with Ross and the others, I'll keep that reputation at all costs.

~~~~~

I feel something wet on my hands and I open my eyes to see that my hands were on fire and the metal bars had melted where I was holding them. I can hear that my breathing is uneven from my anger. I kept thinking of that moment over, and over, and over again while touching the bars until I've melted a hole big enough for me to climb out through.

I hear the muffled echo of someone walking closer and I quickly run down the opposite hall as fast as someone with a hurt leg can run. I run into a room without anyone in it. The only thing in it is a journal and a really weird looking and huge machine. This must be the machine... uh... Star was talking about. Is was Star, wasn't it? Darn it, the headaches getting worse... I take my anger out by kicking the machine as hard as I can a couple times and successfully calm down. After a couple more kicks, I hear a small explosion signaling it was busted. I think I can see some dents in it but everything is blurry so I can't really tell. I quickly grab the journal, not bothering to read what was written on the cover, and start limping down the hall again. Soon enough I find the exit and start limping towards the forest. I can still see footprints from where we ran earlier... or however long ago that was. It's going to rain soon though so I better hurry.

I force myself to frown menacingly while limping. Watch out everybody, Max is free! And I swear to all things holy, I'll break your skull if any of you jerks have hurt my friends!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So,

What did you guys think?

A bit of backstory, a reference to the first book, and Max now knows about his powers!

Sorry about the backstory, I don't know if it's depressing or just a stupid thing I'm going to regret writing in the future but... whatever.

I couldn't think of anything else.

Sorry.

Anyways, I have a small announcement to make.

I will not make a third book to this series.

Because of this I will instead make a chapter or two right before the final chapter that will hopefully explain anything about this series that I accidentally left unanswered.

Hopefully most of the loose ends have been tied up by then, though.

If you still have any questions that are unanswered after that let me know and I'll tell you the answer after the book is done.

That's it for now!

I hope you all have a good day/night!