“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
A phone call between three people, two of whom were currently occupying the same body, was always a little bit awkward. On the other hand, this wasn’t the first time Victoria had been on a trip, and they had spent a lot of time on the phone or some other kind of voice call that time too.
“How are you feeling?” Victoria asked. “I hope you’re not beating yourself up.”
“I’m going to be honest, babe,” Maxine said, sighing. She had a tendency to pace when she was on the phone at home. “It’s hard. None of this would have happened if–”
“If you had never made any mistakes ever and were perfect and omnipresent and capable of flying and–” She stopped. “You see where I’m going with this, baby. You came back because you had a bad feeling and that was the right call. And I saw the interview on TV. You were there for…”
“Her. That’s official now,” Max said, thinking back to the sheer euphoria on Alyssa’s face at getting to be a girl. It was precious. Kids like that needed to be protected. That feeling needed to be protected. “Alyssa.”
“Good for her. And hey, you got her there. You and Penny both,” V said. “And before you start telling me it was all Penny, it takes two to tango or, in this case, it takes two to throw yourself into a burning building to save one dumb kid. Alyssa wouldn’t be alive without you, and don’t you forget it.”
“Yeah, but it was almost over again anyway,” Max said, walking around. The apartment felt so empty without Victoria. She had already packed for the flight back, cleaned every surface in the house twice, eaten the last of the ice cream and was now getting increasingly familiar with the way a tiger feels on a busy Tuesday at the zoo.
I feel like I have to point out, Penny said, that it wasn’t and that she’s alive.
“I deduce from your silence,” Victoria said, “that Penny is chastising you.”
“How can you always tell?” Max asked.
“I know you!” V said happily. “Anyway, do you know when you’re going to be here?”
“Should be the day after tomorrow. Leaving tomorrow but it’s a long flight. I’m all packed and everything. I’m thinking of going out on patrol just to keep my mind off stuff.” Max did not need a lot of sleep, a side effect of the symbiote. She was always a little tired, of course, but that wasn’t really related.
That’s the depression, Penny said helpfully, and you’re doing better there, too.
Anyway, she needed about two to three hours of sleep and that was enough. She wondered briefly if Redshift was the same, or if it was a side-effect of Max and Penny’s unique relationship. They were very sturdy.
“Well, I miss you already,” Victoria said. “But I’m proud of you for being there for them, even if you couldn’t be as well as you wanted to. I know you’re doing your best.”
“Thank you, Riri,” Maxine said.
“And you too, Penny,” V continued. “You two make an amazing team and I love you both very much. You both owe me several kisses because I wasn’t planning on going to sleep alone several nights in a row so…”
“On it,” Penny said with a voice like Cheshire Cat. “I’ll keep her safe in the meantime.”
“Good Symbiote,” Victoria said. Penny purred slightly. “Do you know if they’re coming too? To Iceland, I mean?”
“Yes,” Max said. “Lauren confirmed it. She sounded upset on the phone but I don’t think it was related to what happened. She wasn’t upset at us, at least, and that’s already good news. Anyway, I think the kid will be coming too. Her and Amaranth don’t seem to heal as fast as we do, so some time off will be good for them.” She paused for a second. “Oh! Could you arrange for two more tickets? I know it’s last minute but I want to do something nice for someone. If not, that’s fine.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Victoria said.
“Thank you, babe. How are things over there? Did you blow their socks off yet?”
“Oh you bet. Opening speech rocked the house. In a room full of stuffy old men that means there was clapping, even some glass-clinking. Uproarious guffawing,” she chuckled. “But quite seriously, it went really well. There are some people from SETI who really want to talk to me, so I’m kind of excited. It’s going to be a very interesting week.”
“I’m so proud of you, you know that?” Max said. “Anything else happen?” It was quiet on the other side of the line. Strange things had a tendency to happen to Victoria. Nobody knew why, but Max and Penny had been around her long enough to know that her most rolled numbers were double sixes and snake-eyes. Victoria had a strained relationship with probability
“Not really,” she said, straining slightly. “There’s someone here from a facility near ARS who has a geiger counter – don’t ask why, it was for a dumb joke – and it broke when she got near me. We all laughed it off and a second one – there were a few people there who had one. Again, don’t ask – didn’t set anything off. But it was strange, and she’s been giving me weird looks the entire time.”
“ARS, why does that sound familiar?”
“It’s near San Jose,” Victoria said.
“So probably not a coincidence, then.”
“Probably not.”
Max paced some more. “Are we worried?”
“I’m not.”
“Okay,” Maxine said. “Okay. If you’re not worried I’m not worried. But keep an eye out, okay? Try not to do anything weird. Don’t flip any coins. Don’t play any guessing games. Stay away from the quantum mechanics guys.”
“Yeah, they brought ‘fun experiments’ with them, and I don’t want to do anything to mess up their double slit experiment,” Victoria said. “But we should at some point, you know, talk about him.”
“Not yet,” Max said. “I don’t want him in our lives if I can avoid it.”
“I know. Maybe when you get here. If we get a moment. I’ll see you soon, baby.”
Maxine smiled. Victoria was her rock. Her island.
I think that’s Simon and Garfunkel.
Well the point still stood, witty asides from the alien in her head aside, Max was beyond lucky to have V in her life. “I’ll see you soon. Love you!”
“Love you too. And Max?”
“Yeah?”
“I know you’re crawling up the walls because of the whole thing with Redshift.”
“I’m not,” Max said and dropped down from the ceiling.
“Penny?”
“She is.”
“Traitor.”
“Anyway, try to relax. You did a good thing. I know you’re keeping an eye on her, on the two of them, and with the ‘villain’ behind bars it’s going to be okay.”
“Yeah,” Max said. “It is. Thank you, baby. I’ll see you soon. Love love.”
“See you soon. Love love,” Victoria said and hung up. Max paced back up the wall. Penny gently chided her, but Max was also acutely aware of the fact that they weren’t exactly done worrying either.
They’re kids, Penny said. They will be okay. And you’re not leaving them alone.
“How quickly can we get from here to their house, on foot?” Max said. “Suited up.”
I think we can manage in a good twenty minutes, if we don’t mind a bit of collateral, Penny said. And if they manage to do some real damage in that time, honestly, they deserve to wait it out. It’s going to be fine, Max.
“I’m not comfortable,” she said and opened a window. “I want to go out. Patrol. We’re fully packed, right?”
Packed like you’re planning on shitting yourself twice a day.
“Good. So can we? Go on patrol? We keep it to their side of town, stick to the tall buildings.”
We’re not a gliding squirrel. Just because you’re comfortable with the idea of jumping into the canal from a thousand feet doesn’t mean I am.
“Oh, don’t be a baby,” Max chuckled. “Fine. We can do some community outreach, in that case. Keep our phone close at hand.” She dug it out. A while ago she’d installed an app, one of those ‘technically legal’ ones that wasn’t technically speaking a police scanner, it was just that whoever ran it had it hooked up to local police scanners and passed information along. It was a good way to help out at car crash sites and the like. “Maybe get some kittens out of trees.”
Okay, Penny said. But just for a few hours. I’m calling it at midnight.
“Four AM and we get kebab.”
Two, and I want garlic sauce.
“Deal.”
She jumped out the window, pushing off as hard as she could without damaging the windowsill, which wasn’t very hard at all, and landed on the opposite side of the street, clinging to the concrete like a fly to a wall. It was easy to forget just how strong she was, but together with Penny, she just about managed. Not just that, but over the past year, if anything, she’d only gotten denser, tougher. The fall that had almost killed her, coming down back-asswards off the Bay Bank Building, was now one she was pretty sure she could walk away from, even if she’d be stiff for a bit. She looked down and started to run up the wall.
Are you calling me fat? Penny chuckled. But yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. I think I’m storing excess material. Do you think there’s an upper limit? That was, of course, the question. Were they going to get stronger and tougher indefinitely? The question of whether or not Max actually aged had already crossed their minds, too, and it wasn’t a pleasant one to think about. Penny healed all damage, after all.
Crawling up onto the building, they stretched. Penumbra was free up here. Remarkably few people actually stood up on top of apartment blocks and skyscrapers, but not nobody. They had scared the crap out of a few dove-keepers already, and at least one person who was really into bees. It had been a really fun conversation, though.
“Do you think Rue’s abilities are expanding too?” Max asked. “We haven’t had a chance to hang out with her recently.” They crouched on the edge of the building, looking at the sunset.
I can’t imagine it wouldn’t. She puts them to the test every single day. If we can get her in the program, we can do some real good. Ah, yes. The hero company she had been thinking about had been put on the backburner with the appearance of a hero and a villain in her city, but if Redshift mellowed out she could be an asset too. That is, as you put it, a problem for future Max.
“Yeah,” Maxine said, “but imagine. We don’t know the extent of her powers yet. If she can help, oh, I don’t know, people in a crashing plane, or fly up burning buildings like she did? Rue can technically create constructs like that but that girl is fragile.”
Just because she can’t take a train to the forehead doesn’t make her weak, Max. But you do have a point. Plus, and I hate to say this, she’s young, she’s popular, she’s hip…
“She’s good PR,” Max said. “I know. She doesn’t scare people the way we do. And Rue is never going to be the face of anything. Would probably rather die.”
So, want to ask her? Penny asked. It was tempting. Max knew that she could be a symbol. People like her. Symbols people could rally behind or cower from. Something people could look up to. But she didn’t want to be. She wanted to make the world a brighter place, and maybe, if necessary, be a light, a spark, a fire, someone that could light the way of others and make them the person that others looked up to. Not someone to be emulated but someone who could show people what was possible, so they could choose what to be for themselves. That’s what the project was about. A light in the darkness. Lux In Tenebris. That the acronym spelled out LIT was just a happy coincidence.
“Maybe when we’re in Iceland. She might do something stupid otherwise.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
“Hey.”
A phone call between three people, two of whom were currently occupying the same body, was always a little bit awkward. On the other hand, this wasn’t the first time Victoria had been on a trip, and they had spent a lot of time on the phone or some other kind of voice call that time too.
“How are you feeling?” Victoria asked. “I hope you’re not beating yourself up.”
“I’m going to be honest, babe,” Maxine said, sighing. She had a tendency to pace when she was on the phone at home. “It’s hard. None of this would have happened if–”
“If you had never made any mistakes ever and were perfect and omnipresent and capable of flying and–” She stopped. “You see where I’m going with this, baby. You came back because you had a bad feeling and that was the right call. And I saw the interview on TV. You were there for…”
“Her. That’s official now,” Max said, thinking back to the sheer euphoria on Alyssa’s face at getting to be a girl. It was precious. Kids like that needed to be protected. That feeling needed to be protected. “Alyssa.”
“Good for her. And hey, you got her there. You and Penny both,” V said. “And before you start telling me it was all Penny, it takes two to tango or, in this case, it takes two to throw yourself into a burning building to save one dumb kid. Alyssa wouldn’t be alive without you, and don’t you forget it.”
“Yeah, but it was almost over again anyway,” Max said, walking around. The apartment felt so empty without Victoria. She had already packed for the flight back, cleaned every surface in the house twice, eaten the last of the ice cream and was now getting increasingly familiar with the way a tiger feels on a busy Tuesday at the zoo.
I feel like I have to point out, Penny said, that it wasn’t and that she’s alive.
“I deduce from your silence,” Victoria said, “that Penny is chastising you.”
“How can you always tell?” Max asked.
“I know you!” V said happily. “Anyway, do you know when you’re going to be here?”
“Should be the day after tomorrow. Leaving tomorrow but it’s a long flight. I’m all packed and everything. I’m thinking of going out on patrol just to keep my mind off stuff.” Max did not need a lot of sleep, a side effect of the symbiote. She was always a little tired, of course, but that wasn’t really related.
That’s the depression, Penny said helpfully, and you’re doing better there, too.
Anyway, she needed about two to three hours of sleep and that was enough. She wondered briefly if Redshift was the same, or if it was a side-effect of Max and Penny’s unique relationship. They were very sturdy.
“Well, I miss you already,” Victoria said. “But I’m proud of you for being there for them, even if you couldn’t be as well as you wanted to. I know you’re doing your best.”
“Thank you, Riri,” Maxine said.
“And you too, Penny,” V continued. “You two make an amazing team and I love you both very much. You both owe me several kisses because I wasn’t planning on going to sleep alone several nights in a row so…”
“On it,” Penny said with a voice like Cheshire Cat. “I’ll keep her safe in the meantime.”
“Good Symbiote,” Victoria said. Penny purred slightly. “Do you know if they’re coming too? To Iceland, I mean?”
“Yes,” Max said. “Lauren confirmed it. She sounded upset on the phone but I don’t think it was related to what happened. She wasn’t upset at us, at least, and that’s already good news. Anyway, I think the kid will be coming too. Her and Amaranth don’t seem to heal as fast as we do, so some time off will be good for them.” She paused for a second. “Oh! Could you arrange for two more tickets? I know it’s last minute but I want to do something nice for someone. If not, that’s fine.”
“I’ll see what I can do,” Victoria said.
“Thank you, babe. How are things over there? Did you blow their socks off yet?”
“Oh you bet. Opening speech rocked the house. In a room full of stuffy old men that means there was clapping, even some glass-clinking. Uproarious guffawing,” she chuckled. “But quite seriously, it went really well. There are some people from SETI who really want to talk to me, so I’m kind of excited. It’s going to be a very interesting week.”
“I’m so proud of you, you know that?” Max said. “Anything else happen?” It was quiet on the other side of the line. Strange things had a tendency to happen to Victoria. Nobody knew why, but Max and Penny had been around her long enough to know that her most rolled numbers were double sixes and snake-eyes. Victoria had a strained relationship with probability
“Not really,” she said, straining slightly. “There’s someone here from a facility near ARS who has a geiger counter – don’t ask why, it was for a dumb joke – and it broke when she got near me. We all laughed it off and a second one – there were a few people there who had one. Again, don’t ask – didn’t set anything off. But it was strange, and she’s been giving me weird looks the entire time.”
“ARS, why does that sound familiar?”
“It’s near San Jose,” Victoria said.
“So probably not a coincidence, then.”
“Probably not.”
Max paced some more. “Are we worried?”
“I’m not.”
“Okay,” Maxine said. “Okay. If you’re not worried I’m not worried. But keep an eye out, okay? Try not to do anything weird. Don’t flip any coins. Don’t play any guessing games. Stay away from the quantum mechanics guys.”
“Yeah, they brought ‘fun experiments’ with them, and I don’t want to do anything to mess up their double slit experiment,” Victoria said. “But we should at some point, you know, talk about him.”
“Not yet,” Max said. “I don’t want him in our lives if I can avoid it.”
“I know. Maybe when you get here. If we get a moment. I’ll see you soon, baby.”
Maxine smiled. Victoria was her rock. Her island.
I think that’s Simon and Garfunkel.
Well the point still stood, witty asides from the alien in her head aside, Max was beyond lucky to have V in her life. “I’ll see you soon. Love you!”
“Love you too. And Max?”
“Yeah?”
“I know you’re crawling up the walls because of the whole thing with Redshift.”
“I’m not,” Max said and dropped down from the ceiling.
“Penny?”
“She is.”
“Traitor.”
“Anyway, try to relax. You did a good thing. I know you’re keeping an eye on her, on the two of them, and with the ‘villain’ behind bars it’s going to be okay.”
“Yeah,” Max said. “It is. Thank you, baby. I’ll see you soon. Love love.”
“See you soon. Love love,” Victoria said and hung up. Max paced back up the wall. Penny gently chided her, but Max was also acutely aware of the fact that they weren’t exactly done worrying either.
They’re kids, Penny said. They will be okay. And you’re not leaving them alone.
“How quickly can we get from here to their house, on foot?” Max said. “Suited up.”
I think we can manage in a good twenty minutes, if we don’t mind a bit of collateral, Penny said. And if they manage to do some real damage in that time, honestly, they deserve to wait it out. It’s going to be fine, Max.
“I’m not comfortable,” she said and opened a window. “I want to go out. Patrol. We’re fully packed, right?”
Packed like you’re planning on shitting yourself twice a day.
“Good. So can we? Go on patrol? We keep it to their side of town, stick to the tall buildings.”
We’re not a gliding squirrel. Just because you’re comfortable with the idea of jumping into the canal from a thousand feet doesn’t mean I am.
“Oh, don’t be a baby,” Max chuckled. “Fine. We can do some community outreach, in that case. Keep our phone close at hand.” She dug it out. A while ago she’d installed an app, one of those ‘technically legal’ ones that wasn’t technically speaking a police scanner, it was just that whoever ran it had it hooked up to local police scanners and passed information along. It was a good way to help out at car crash sites and the like. “Maybe get some kittens out of trees.”
Okay, Penny said. But just for a few hours. I’m calling it at midnight.
“Four AM and we get kebab.”
Two, and I want garlic sauce.
“Deal.”
She jumped out the window, pushing off as hard as she could without damaging the windowsill, which wasn’t very hard at all, and landed on the opposite side of the street, clinging to the concrete like a fly to a wall. It was easy to forget just how strong she was, but together with Penny, she just about managed. Not just that, but over the past year, if anything, she’d only gotten denser, tougher. The fall that had almost killed her, coming down back-asswards off the Bay Bank Building, was now one she was pretty sure she could walk away from, even if she’d be stiff for a bit. She looked down and started to run up the wall.
Are you calling me fat? Penny chuckled. But yeah, I’ve been wondering about that. I think I’m storing excess material. Do you think there’s an upper limit? That was, of course, the question. Were they going to get stronger and tougher indefinitely? The question of whether or not Max actually aged had already crossed their minds, too, and it wasn’t a pleasant one to think about. Penny healed all damage, after all.
Crawling up onto the building, they stretched. Penumbra was free up here. Remarkably few people actually stood up on top of apartment blocks and skyscrapers, but not nobody. They had scared the crap out of a few dove-keepers already, and at least one person who was really into bees. It had been a really fun conversation, though.
“Do you think Rue’s abilities are expanding too?” Max asked. “We haven’t had a chance to hang out with her recently.” They crouched on the edge of the building, looking at the sunset.
I can’t imagine it wouldn’t. She puts them to the test every single day. If we can get her in the program, we can do some real good. Ah, yes. The hero company she had been thinking about had been put on the backburner with the appearance of a hero and a villain in her city, but if Redshift mellowed out she could be an asset too. That is, as you put it, a problem for future Max.
“Yeah,” Maxine said, “but imagine. We don’t know the extent of her powers yet. If she can help, oh, I don’t know, people in a crashing plane, or fly up burning buildings like she did? Rue can technically create constructs like that but that girl is fragile.”
Just because she can’t take a train to the forehead doesn’t make her weak, Max. But you do have a point. Plus, and I hate to say this, she’s young, she’s popular, she’s hip…
“She’s good PR,” Max said. “I know. She doesn’t scare people the way we do. And Rue is never going to be the face of anything. Would probably rather die.”
So, want to ask her? Penny asked. It was tempting. Max knew that she could be a symbol. People like her. Symbols people could rally behind or cower from. Something people could look up to. But she didn’t want to be. She wanted to make the world a brighter place, and maybe, if necessary, be a light, a spark, a fire, someone that could light the way of others and make them the person that others looked up to. Not someone to be emulated but someone who could show people what was possible, so they could choose what to be for themselves. That’s what the project was about. A light in the darkness. Lux In Tenebris. That the acronym spelled out LIT was just a happy coincidence.
“Maybe when we’re in Iceland. She might do something stupid otherwise.”
