A second chance

Chapter 6

Max lingered for a bit to his dad coming through the back door. He winked at him before he went to grab his books. 

Max was currently tinkering with his stealth suit that he decided to name Ghost. Not the most original name, but if the hat fits. He decided to apply a stasis field to his suit, making up to five targets immobile for one minute. He had been working on this for the past few hours and he was almost done. He just needed to focus now since this was the delicate part, one wrong move and it could destroy the suit and trap him in stasis.

"Max? Are you still up?" his father asked and Max cursed his timing.

"Yeah. I just needed to finish something up, then I'll go to sleep," he said and moved with his chair in order to block the view for his father.

"Listen, I wanted to thank you for your help. Your mother and I had a great time and she loved the car."

"I'm glad," the young vigilante replied without looking at his father.

"There is something you wanted to ask, though: why did you threaten to spill the beans to Phoebe if I didn't change the color of the car instead of telling me that your mother would love a different color?"

"Because you wouldn't believe me," his son replied in a matter-of-fact tone and Hank felt like he had just been slapped. The absolute certainty Max had that he wouldn't believe made him feel like he had indigestion. "Not that I don't blame you. I wouldn't trust me either."

"Max...son...I do trust you," said as he approached his son.

The young man looked at his father from the corner of the eye. While he wanted to connect with his father, now was a very bad time. "Look, can we talk about this another time? I'm busy."

Hank looked conflicted, but he knew that if he would force it he would only make Max distance himself from him. "Okay, we'll talk some other time."

"That was the first time your moron dad tried to connect with you," remarked Colosso.

"It was also the first time I did something nice for him without any ulterior moments."

"You can use that to get that laptop you wanted."

Max said nothing, opting instead to go to sleep.

"And then he said that he understood and that he wouldn't trust himself either," Hank rambled as he paced in the bedroom he shared with his wife.

"But it is true, we don't trust him," she pointed out.

"I know! And he would usually try to convince to trust him, but now he sounded...resigned."

"He had been acting weird lately," Barb pointed out. "Getting along with Phoebe, catching Darcy."

"Making dinner reservations for us."

"Wait, he made the reservations?"

"Yeah and he also suggested I buy you the garnet car,"

Barb was speechless. "Do...do you think he wants to be a hero?"

"I was hoping, but you remember what he said when he caught Darcy."

"Maybe he is in denial. Max is a stubborn and rebellious child. He just needs time to get out of his shell. All we can do is be there for him, to love and support him."

Max just finished performing an analysis on both his and jetpack.

"Max! Phoebe!" Nora yelled meaning that dinner was ready.

After downloading the reports on his phone to look at them while eating, the young vigilante went upstairs. It would have been a normal dinner had Phoebe not caught a giant meatball without even looking. As his dad was explaining what Thundersense was, Max was debating if he should lie about not having Thundersense.