To The 10th Power: Max
Jan. 12th, 2012 11:43 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameFirst, let me say this: I need to stop saying, "It's muffin time!" before eating a muffin. Thank you, Norm.
Second:
To The 10th Power
Chapter: Max
Note: I went a little crossover happy.
1
Memento mori
Max has a tradition, one he hopes he never has to share with his students. Once a year—always the same day—he and a couple of his friends get together and try to drink themselves into oblivion.
It started with Jack, when his son died. Max joined him on the day of Charlie’s birthday, a bottle of whiskey in hand. Gil joined about a decade later, when one of his protégés was killed in his arms, shot by a crooked cop. The scotch wasn’t enough to make them forget, but it did help with the grief.
They all have names: for Jack, Charlie. For Gil, Warrick. For Max, Devin. Every year, the list grows, and sometimes they have new arrivals. Sometimes, given their lines of work, they lose some. But those guys, they meet any other day. This day is exclusive, only for those who come to drink to their lost sons.
2
Divine wind
Max never knew his father; the man had been killed before he was born. It had been the tail end of the war, and the fresh young recruit was sent to the Pacific while his pregnant wife held the homefront. Kirby Tennyson’s ship was hit by a kamikaze pilot, and he’d been among the fatalities.
His mother never really got over it. What was worse for her was that her son had an adventurous spirit. He couldn’t wait to get out of his small town and see the world. And for him, there was no better way to die than in a blaze of glory, much the way the kamikazes did. When he had the chance to join the Plumbers, he leapt at it. That tempered him a bit, teaching him that a true hero should not crave adventure and that the noblest death was a sacrifice to protect someone else.
When he looks at his grandkids—and Kevin’s so close to them that he might as well be one of them; Max doesn’t doubt that by either marriage or adoption, he one day will—Max begins to understand his mother’s fears. Kevin’s the obvious one to worry about; his father died sacrificing his life to save Max. Some part of him fears that Kevin will follow in his father’s footsteps and do the same, probably protecting Gwen. Gwen has something worse than death she risks—she’s terrified of losing her humanity, giving in to her Anodyte heritage. And for all Max still loves Verdona and everything she is, he knows that for Gwen, this would be nothing short of death—the loss of her humanity, her identity, everything that makes her who she is. But Kevin’s too damn stubborn to die, and Gwen has too much control over her powers to lose herself. The one he really fears for is Ben.
Ben’s very similar to the way Max used to be—adventurer at heart, a hero to the last. He takes risks the way most people breathe, jumping off cliffs and waiting till the last moment to transform, not just flirting with death but making sweet love to her and promising to call in the morning. And actually doing so. To abuse another metaphor, Ben won’t be knocking down death’s door; he’ll kick the damned thing off its hinges. It’s who he is.
But Max has one thing to rest his mind. Ben doesn’t believe in sacrifice. He’ll charge in and do whatever he can to try to save someone, but he understands too well how much it hurts to lose someone, so he won’t sacrifice himself—just the way he won’t sacrifice anyone else. He’ll come too close and scare the hell out of all of them, but in the end, he always chooses to live. And Max thanks the spirit of his father every night for that.
3
Viewpoints
Then the day came when Ben said that he was willing to kill Kevin if it meant saving the world.
It was the same choice Max had made when he realized that his late partner’s son was too dangerous and would seriously harm or kill somebody if he didn’t treat him like any other criminal.
It was logical. It was what any Plumber would do. It just wasn’t Ben.
And it made Max wonder how much Ben’s views on self-sacrifice had changed too.
4
Guilt
There’s nothing quite like watching a seventeen-year-old analyze a scene like a veteran CSI to give you such a deep sense of guilt that you’re giving that bottle of tequila a second look.
Sure, Max has said in the past that Kevin had promise to be a good Plumber, but it wasn’t until he perfectly analyzed every shred of evidence on the scene that it really hit him. That kid is going to make a great cop one day. It’s not instincts; Max knows that Kevin’s done everything possible to teach himself the ins and outs of the job. And that’s what makes him feel so guilty. Kevin shouldn’t have had to figure it out for himself. He should have had someone teaching him, just like Max taught Ben and Gwen.
Max doesn’t know what he blames himself for. Could he have prevented Devin’s death? Maybe—he’s always wondered. Or is it just that he regrets not keeping a closer eye on him, honoring Devin’s memory and making sure his son was okay? It’s hard to say. Either way, for all the mistakes he’s made and the lessons he failed to teach, he’s glad that all three of these kids are smarter than he ever was. Whatever mistakes they make will be their own, and he has a feeling that none of them are going to have to get together with a bottle once a year to try to forget those mistakes.
5
Networking
None of the kids knows just how extensive Max’s network of old friends really is. By friendship alone, his associates cover most of North America, parts of Europe and South Asia, a couple of cities in Japan, and at least three solar systems. Reputation alone gets him half the galaxy. Reputation, friendships, and his friends’ friends get him the entire Milky Way, the Pegasus Irregular galaxy, and a couple of alternate universes too. These associations come in handy.
The kids also don’t know that since Ben’s identity was leaked, there have been about thirteen different threats against his life, and none of them by his usual rogues’ gallery. These are all whackos across Earth—those who believe that Ben is the source of all this alien activity and if he’s gone, everything will go back to normal. Others simply like the idea of killing someone famous, and either they think a sixteen-year-old isn’t going to be much of a threat or they like the idea of the thrill killing superhuman aliens would be.
To ensure that Ben is safe from such faceless enemies that he’d have no idea how to fight, Max called on everyone he could for help. Gil might not be in the U.S. right now, but he’s still got connections in Vegas, and those guys know people who can help in Miami, New York, and the FBI. Jack’s got that top secret stuff with the Air Force and though he really can’t discuss it, he’s dropped hints that he’s got some alien friends watching out for Ben too. In Japan, the students and successors of his late detective friend pass along any information they’ve picked up. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what Max knows Azmuth has set into place, just to be sure that his unexpected protégé doesn’t get caught off-guard.
This is probably the biggest secret Max has ever kept from them. It’s not because he doesn’t think they can handle it or anything. It’s just because he believes it’s something they shouldn’t have to handle.
6
Family
Something not even Max knows is that there are at least five other Tennyson children and eight grandchildren scattered throughout the galaxy—a consequence of Max not being nearly as careful when he was younger. Two of his children are on very low-Level 2 planets, one is an ambassador, another is a Plumber, and the fifth is an actor in a series of popular action movies.
What no one has even guessed is that one of Max’s children is David Albright, Alan’s father.
What’s even stranger is that Ben has treated Alan like family since day one, and all without a clue.
7
Normal
Max often regrets that he was never close to his children, though he does all he can to make it up to his grandchildren. Ben and Gwen have grown so much from what he’s taught them, and for all it’s easy to group them together always because of their age and their powers, he does everything he can to make sure they have separate experiences—a special memory for each of them all of their own.
But Kenny’s the normal one, the one without a spark or an alien watch. The one specifically raised without knowledge of their other world. The one targeted because of that.
And it’s funny, but he thinks that’s made them closer. Max actually has to try with him. He’s had to learn what Ken’s interested in, attend his games, help him with his computers, run to the phone when he calls after learning he’s still alive. Listen carefully to every sobbing apology and rush to his dorm and make damn sure that he knows it wasn’t his fault and everything is okay now.
Ken’s the only one he has a normal relationship with. A perfectly normal grandfather and grandson. And it’s no less or more special than his relationship with the others, but it teaches him a little more, even if only for how he should have tried harder decades ago.
8
The best medicine
The strangest compliment Max ever got in his life was from an out-of-control Kevin telling him just how much he respected him, all the while trying to kill him.
And even stranger, he thinks that if Devin knew what was going on, he would have laughed.
It’s just the way he was. He had a bizarre sense of humor—rarely appropriate, and even his own son being insane from energy absorption wouldn’t be enough to kill his good nature.
But when he looks at Ben and Kevin immediately reconciling and going out to get something to eat—ignoring the fact that Kevin’s in his underwear and Ben has enough bruises on his body to land him in bed for a week—he knows that they’d get it. They’d laugh themselves sick.
And it’s those things that make Max begin to forgive himself.
9
All I really oughta know
There’s a very good reason Max began teaching Pierce and the others instead of helping Ben and his team.
Put simply: they need him more than Ben does.
He saw it as early as the quest to find Azmuth. Ben and Gwen went without him, trusting in Tetrax and each other to make it through. They didn’t need their old grandpa to teach them anything anymore, to hold their hands and keep them safe.
And when Ben helped rescue him and Ken, he knew he had to keep Ben from falling into the habit of letting him make all the decisions. Ben had to be the leader of these new kids, not Max. It was Ben they’d be able to connect to, the one he knew would lead them to victory, the only one who could teach them to save the world.
Maybe being a teacher wasn’t right for Ben, but being a leader certainly was. There was something in the group dynamic of Ben, Gwen, and Kevin, and Max knew that as long as they had each other, they would be fine.
But the neophytes weren’t quite as lucky. Pierce, Helen, and Manny had been friends for a long time, but Cooper had been an outcast and Alan only had his little brothers. They were headstrong, brash, and enthusiastic, and they needed someone to turn that energy into something beneficial, teach them how to become proper Plumbers before they got themselves killed. They’d gotten too close in the past on their own.
Ben won’t believe him no matter how many times Max tells him, and it’s a wonderful compliment as much as he knows it’s wrong. Ben’s group is too grown up to have someone giving them orders. It’s why he convinced the Plumbers to back off as long as they did; they knew what they were doing, and they were doing it well.
But if there’s one thing that makes him prouder than anything else, something that makes him know that even Ben realizes he’s ready, it’s when Ben tells those starry-eyed kids who look up to him as their ideal that if they’re going to get anywhere, they’re going to learn it from the one who got him where he is today.
And he knows he’s taught Ben everything he needs to know.
10
Wish upon the moon
The old bar where Max first met Verdona is still standing.
And its chili is still as bad as ever.
Every year on their anniversary, Max and Verdona would go there for a drink and a bowl of that terrible chili. When she left, he continued the tradition alone. It was a way to feel close to her still, to look up at the universe above him and make up stories of which star she’s visiting. To raise a glass to the moon and wish her well.
Their anniversary fell during the time he was presumed dead, and Verdona went there first before going to the lake. She assumed a form based on the human form she’d taken when they met, only aged forty or fifty years. She bought a bottle of wine and toasted to the heavens.
The year after, they came together again. And though they know that they can’t remain beside each other beyond the one night, it’s more than enough for them.
This chapter has a tone much more similar to one of the fics that inspired me for it, “Catch 22” by The Sh33p in the Naruto fandom. Namely, #6 is similar to #11 in chapter 4 of “Catch 22.” Otherwise, this chapter was more of a crossover fest than anything else. “Gil” and “Jack” mentioned in #1 and #5 are Gil Grissom from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Jack O’Neill from Stargate: SG-1, and #5 references their spinoffs. The Japanese detective mentioned in #5 is Sokichi Narumi of Kamen Rider W, and it’s no spoiler to say that he died before the series began. His successors are his protégé Shotaro Hidari and the young genius they rescued on their last mission, Philip.
Second:
To The 10th Power
Chapter: Max
Note: I went a little crossover happy.
Memento mori
Max has a tradition, one he hopes he never has to share with his students. Once a year—always the same day—he and a couple of his friends get together and try to drink themselves into oblivion.
It started with Jack, when his son died. Max joined him on the day of Charlie’s birthday, a bottle of whiskey in hand. Gil joined about a decade later, when one of his protégés was killed in his arms, shot by a crooked cop. The scotch wasn’t enough to make them forget, but it did help with the grief.
They all have names: for Jack, Charlie. For Gil, Warrick. For Max, Devin. Every year, the list grows, and sometimes they have new arrivals. Sometimes, given their lines of work, they lose some. But those guys, they meet any other day. This day is exclusive, only for those who come to drink to their lost sons.
Divine wind
Max never knew his father; the man had been killed before he was born. It had been the tail end of the war, and the fresh young recruit was sent to the Pacific while his pregnant wife held the homefront. Kirby Tennyson’s ship was hit by a kamikaze pilot, and he’d been among the fatalities.
His mother never really got over it. What was worse for her was that her son had an adventurous spirit. He couldn’t wait to get out of his small town and see the world. And for him, there was no better way to die than in a blaze of glory, much the way the kamikazes did. When he had the chance to join the Plumbers, he leapt at it. That tempered him a bit, teaching him that a true hero should not crave adventure and that the noblest death was a sacrifice to protect someone else.
When he looks at his grandkids—and Kevin’s so close to them that he might as well be one of them; Max doesn’t doubt that by either marriage or adoption, he one day will—Max begins to understand his mother’s fears. Kevin’s the obvious one to worry about; his father died sacrificing his life to save Max. Some part of him fears that Kevin will follow in his father’s footsteps and do the same, probably protecting Gwen. Gwen has something worse than death she risks—she’s terrified of losing her humanity, giving in to her Anodyte heritage. And for all Max still loves Verdona and everything she is, he knows that for Gwen, this would be nothing short of death—the loss of her humanity, her identity, everything that makes her who she is. But Kevin’s too damn stubborn to die, and Gwen has too much control over her powers to lose herself. The one he really fears for is Ben.
Ben’s very similar to the way Max used to be—adventurer at heart, a hero to the last. He takes risks the way most people breathe, jumping off cliffs and waiting till the last moment to transform, not just flirting with death but making sweet love to her and promising to call in the morning. And actually doing so. To abuse another metaphor, Ben won’t be knocking down death’s door; he’ll kick the damned thing off its hinges. It’s who he is.
But Max has one thing to rest his mind. Ben doesn’t believe in sacrifice. He’ll charge in and do whatever he can to try to save someone, but he understands too well how much it hurts to lose someone, so he won’t sacrifice himself—just the way he won’t sacrifice anyone else. He’ll come too close and scare the hell out of all of them, but in the end, he always chooses to live. And Max thanks the spirit of his father every night for that.
Viewpoints
Then the day came when Ben said that he was willing to kill Kevin if it meant saving the world.
It was the same choice Max had made when he realized that his late partner’s son was too dangerous and would seriously harm or kill somebody if he didn’t treat him like any other criminal.
It was logical. It was what any Plumber would do. It just wasn’t Ben.
And it made Max wonder how much Ben’s views on self-sacrifice had changed too.
Guilt
There’s nothing quite like watching a seventeen-year-old analyze a scene like a veteran CSI to give you such a deep sense of guilt that you’re giving that bottle of tequila a second look.
Sure, Max has said in the past that Kevin had promise to be a good Plumber, but it wasn’t until he perfectly analyzed every shred of evidence on the scene that it really hit him. That kid is going to make a great cop one day. It’s not instincts; Max knows that Kevin’s done everything possible to teach himself the ins and outs of the job. And that’s what makes him feel so guilty. Kevin shouldn’t have had to figure it out for himself. He should have had someone teaching him, just like Max taught Ben and Gwen.
Max doesn’t know what he blames himself for. Could he have prevented Devin’s death? Maybe—he’s always wondered. Or is it just that he regrets not keeping a closer eye on him, honoring Devin’s memory and making sure his son was okay? It’s hard to say. Either way, for all the mistakes he’s made and the lessons he failed to teach, he’s glad that all three of these kids are smarter than he ever was. Whatever mistakes they make will be their own, and he has a feeling that none of them are going to have to get together with a bottle once a year to try to forget those mistakes.
Networking
None of the kids knows just how extensive Max’s network of old friends really is. By friendship alone, his associates cover most of North America, parts of Europe and South Asia, a couple of cities in Japan, and at least three solar systems. Reputation alone gets him half the galaxy. Reputation, friendships, and his friends’ friends get him the entire Milky Way, the Pegasus Irregular galaxy, and a couple of alternate universes too. These associations come in handy.
The kids also don’t know that since Ben’s identity was leaked, there have been about thirteen different threats against his life, and none of them by his usual rogues’ gallery. These are all whackos across Earth—those who believe that Ben is the source of all this alien activity and if he’s gone, everything will go back to normal. Others simply like the idea of killing someone famous, and either they think a sixteen-year-old isn’t going to be much of a threat or they like the idea of the thrill killing superhuman aliens would be.
To ensure that Ben is safe from such faceless enemies that he’d have no idea how to fight, Max called on everyone he could for help. Gil might not be in the U.S. right now, but he’s still got connections in Vegas, and those guys know people who can help in Miami, New York, and the FBI. Jack’s got that top secret stuff with the Air Force and though he really can’t discuss it, he’s dropped hints that he’s got some alien friends watching out for Ben too. In Japan, the students and successors of his late detective friend pass along any information they’ve picked up. And that doesn’t even scratch the surface of what Max knows Azmuth has set into place, just to be sure that his unexpected protégé doesn’t get caught off-guard.
This is probably the biggest secret Max has ever kept from them. It’s not because he doesn’t think they can handle it or anything. It’s just because he believes it’s something they shouldn’t have to handle.
Family
Something not even Max knows is that there are at least five other Tennyson children and eight grandchildren scattered throughout the galaxy—a consequence of Max not being nearly as careful when he was younger. Two of his children are on very low-Level 2 planets, one is an ambassador, another is a Plumber, and the fifth is an actor in a series of popular action movies.
What no one has even guessed is that one of Max’s children is David Albright, Alan’s father.
What’s even stranger is that Ben has treated Alan like family since day one, and all without a clue.
Normal
Max often regrets that he was never close to his children, though he does all he can to make it up to his grandchildren. Ben and Gwen have grown so much from what he’s taught them, and for all it’s easy to group them together always because of their age and their powers, he does everything he can to make sure they have separate experiences—a special memory for each of them all of their own.
But Kenny’s the normal one, the one without a spark or an alien watch. The one specifically raised without knowledge of their other world. The one targeted because of that.
And it’s funny, but he thinks that’s made them closer. Max actually has to try with him. He’s had to learn what Ken’s interested in, attend his games, help him with his computers, run to the phone when he calls after learning he’s still alive. Listen carefully to every sobbing apology and rush to his dorm and make damn sure that he knows it wasn’t his fault and everything is okay now.
Ken’s the only one he has a normal relationship with. A perfectly normal grandfather and grandson. And it’s no less or more special than his relationship with the others, but it teaches him a little more, even if only for how he should have tried harder decades ago.
The best medicine
The strangest compliment Max ever got in his life was from an out-of-control Kevin telling him just how much he respected him, all the while trying to kill him.
And even stranger, he thinks that if Devin knew what was going on, he would have laughed.
It’s just the way he was. He had a bizarre sense of humor—rarely appropriate, and even his own son being insane from energy absorption wouldn’t be enough to kill his good nature.
But when he looks at Ben and Kevin immediately reconciling and going out to get something to eat—ignoring the fact that Kevin’s in his underwear and Ben has enough bruises on his body to land him in bed for a week—he knows that they’d get it. They’d laugh themselves sick.
And it’s those things that make Max begin to forgive himself.
All I really oughta know
There’s a very good reason Max began teaching Pierce and the others instead of helping Ben and his team.
Put simply: they need him more than Ben does.
He saw it as early as the quest to find Azmuth. Ben and Gwen went without him, trusting in Tetrax and each other to make it through. They didn’t need their old grandpa to teach them anything anymore, to hold their hands and keep them safe.
And when Ben helped rescue him and Ken, he knew he had to keep Ben from falling into the habit of letting him make all the decisions. Ben had to be the leader of these new kids, not Max. It was Ben they’d be able to connect to, the one he knew would lead them to victory, the only one who could teach them to save the world.
Maybe being a teacher wasn’t right for Ben, but being a leader certainly was. There was something in the group dynamic of Ben, Gwen, and Kevin, and Max knew that as long as they had each other, they would be fine.
But the neophytes weren’t quite as lucky. Pierce, Helen, and Manny had been friends for a long time, but Cooper had been an outcast and Alan only had his little brothers. They were headstrong, brash, and enthusiastic, and they needed someone to turn that energy into something beneficial, teach them how to become proper Plumbers before they got themselves killed. They’d gotten too close in the past on their own.
Ben won’t believe him no matter how many times Max tells him, and it’s a wonderful compliment as much as he knows it’s wrong. Ben’s group is too grown up to have someone giving them orders. It’s why he convinced the Plumbers to back off as long as they did; they knew what they were doing, and they were doing it well.
But if there’s one thing that makes him prouder than anything else, something that makes him know that even Ben realizes he’s ready, it’s when Ben tells those starry-eyed kids who look up to him as their ideal that if they’re going to get anywhere, they’re going to learn it from the one who got him where he is today.
And he knows he’s taught Ben everything he needs to know.
Wish upon the moon
The old bar where Max first met Verdona is still standing.
And its chili is still as bad as ever.
Every year on their anniversary, Max and Verdona would go there for a drink and a bowl of that terrible chili. When she left, he continued the tradition alone. It was a way to feel close to her still, to look up at the universe above him and make up stories of which star she’s visiting. To raise a glass to the moon and wish her well.
Their anniversary fell during the time he was presumed dead, and Verdona went there first before going to the lake. She assumed a form based on the human form she’d taken when they met, only aged forty or fifty years. She bought a bottle of wine and toasted to the heavens.
The year after, they came together again. And though they know that they can’t remain beside each other beyond the one night, it’s more than enough for them.
This chapter has a tone much more similar to one of the fics that inspired me for it, “Catch 22” by The Sh33p in the Naruto fandom. Namely, #6 is similar to #11 in chapter 4 of “Catch 22.” Otherwise, this chapter was more of a crossover fest than anything else. “Gil” and “Jack” mentioned in #1 and #5 are Gil Grissom from CSI: Crime Scene Investigation and Jack O’Neill from Stargate: SG-1, and #5 references their spinoffs. The Japanese detective mentioned in #5 is Sokichi Narumi of Kamen Rider W, and it’s no spoiler to say that he died before the series began. His successors are his protégé Shotaro Hidari and the young genius they rescued on their last mission, Philip.