Troy and the Captain of Ringdom

Back on Track

"I narrowly escaped death when I contracted that goddamn virus" Oliver began. She felt a bit embarrassed talking about this but since Max brought up such an estranged topic then so be it.

"I felt like...everything was coming to an end...you know" she continued, staring into the sky.

"It's so terrible, when you look at all the stuff you planned to achieve in the future and then you're battling with the feeling that you might not even get past the current day...It's really nasty man...I don't really wish that stuff for anybody" Ollie concluded.

"Well mine was a lot different...I was dangling from a rope, right above a pot of smoking hot lava!" Max began straight away. The experience he had a few days ago still felt like it just happened hours ago. Oliver initially didn't believe his story.

"Wow...that is some story..." Oliver said. Max wasn't too baffled to know that Ollie thought he was making up another 'Maxperience' tale.

"No! You're probably thinking this is some cheesy story, but I ain't making this up" he said as he adjusted his position to sit closer to Oliver.

"...I thought I'd never see your again" Max said. His statement couldn't have been adjudged to be completely true - they'd barely known each other for a couple of days, but Max began to feel for Ollie something he'd never felt for any other girl.

On hearing Max's words, Ollie leaned over and gave Max and long nice French kiss and suddenly things began to feel a lot more awkward. After filming most of their romantic 'date', a group of Max's fellow tenth grade students popped out of their convenient hiding spots. Ollie and Max began to feel extremely uncomfortable.

"Matt? Sarah? Andrew? What are you guys doing here? At the Park? So late in the evening?" Maximilian asked, seeming really surprised to see every single one of them.

"We just got every single bit of your romantic little get together, capped off with that passionate kiss!" Matt said as Ollie began to shudder. Max didn't look distressed one little bit.

"We're gonna post this video on Instaflash and tag every single member of our class...including you two" Sarah added.

"Guys...you don't wanna do this, trust me" Ollie said beginning her plea for mercy. Max had been at Seattle High a while longer than Ollie and so he knew the trio standing right before them were capable of stooping so low.

"Nope...you can't tell us what to do. I'm actually a lot more disappointed in you Max...your reputation is in a lot more danger" said Andy who looked in Max's direction. Andrew and Max had been having a real spat of late. The duo had been actively battling against each other for the class representative privileges and Max's announcement as the class representatives only threw more wood into the fire.

Andy was looking for several ways to plunge his rage against his school mate, but this was one opportunity he was going to grab by the horns at all costs.

"...You'll probably be knocked out as class representative once Mrs Fleck gets to see this" Andy said making a lengthy villainesque chuckle that soon got everyone feeling awkward. He then apologized for his abnormal moment of absurdity and unawareness.

After properly making their intentions known, all three of them left the park without saying a goodbye. Oliver began to feel so worried. She was wishing she had remained the class introvert instead of getting roped into an avoidable mess. Max had been quiet and calm all through the opposition's threats and Ollie thought she could get to know what made him feel so untroubled in such a moment of distress.

"...and why are you so unworried?!" Ollie yelled after she had turned to meet Max feigning an attractive smile.

"You know...when you've got a sister who works as an Intel gatherer for an undercover crime fighting agency...you've got very little to worry about most of the time" Max said. Oliver who didn't understand a word he said was completely perplexed.

"What do you mean Max?!" said young Ms. Harkins.

"Just don't worry about it...no one's going to find out anything, trust me" Max said, giving his firm word of reassurance.

"Oh really? I should trust you? How in Orion's belt do you think you're going to pull that off huh?"

"You'll see..." Max said. Ollie simply walked out on him and headed straight back home. She found it hard to believe that Max would prevent that video from circulating all over the internet in minutes.

"Ollie?! You're not gonna even give me a goodbye hug or even a kiss?!" he said, increasing his pitch as Oliver drew farther and farther away. It wasn't his fault in any case, but if that video got out of any of Matt's, Sarah's or Andy's mobile phones then a great blow would be dealt to Ollie's already rising confidence. Loosing the class representative's position wouldn't have been too much of a big deal for a social media sensation like Max. Whatever step he was going to take from here on was for Ollie's sake.

Max quickly ran home as fast as his feet could carry him. In a bid to move faster than he already was, and save a lot more energy, he took a pair of roller skates that weren't his from a pavement in the park and rolled as quick as he could straight home. The skates felt a bit soggy on the inside, but they'd still do the job.

On arriving at Boulevard Brooks, he took off the skates and ran like a gold worthy Olympic athlete, straight to the elevator that would take him straight to the Riecke's floor. Mark Poppins; the man who served as the building secretary and co receptionist, simply suggested to his co worker that Max really needed to use the potty real quick.

As Max arrived at his floor, his heart continued to pump extremely fast and afterwards he pushed open the door and ran into one of Mrs Riecke's female guests from Russo Designs. According to Mrs Riecke, she was just about leaving.

"Max?! What's the matter with you?" Mrs Riecke said. She immediately rushed off from the kitchen to help her special guest get back to her feet.

"I'm extremely sorry...ma'am...and Mom. Is Maddie home? I really need to talk to her" Max said. He was quite in a hurry that evening.

"Yeah she's in the basement, but you just knocked..." Mrs Riecke was saying before Max hushed her with his lightning fast response.

"Alright cool Mom...love you!" Max said, as he raced straight to the basement. He didn't have time for any more complications.

Maddie was busy watching the penultimate episode of her favorite animated series "Holey Molly". No matter how old she got, she'd never stop viewing the reruns of her best ever kids series. She'd been viewing the series ever since she turned five.

"Maddie! Maddie!!" Max said as he tumbled down from the elevator. Maddie spilled her popcorn all over her control panel and everywhere got really messy.

"Oh no! My popcorn! What do you want Max? This better be good or I'll rip you to pieces man" Maddie yelled.

"I'm so sorry about your popcorn by the way!" Max said.

"Oh! You don't have to be sorry...if your interruption isn't worthy enough, then I'll pop all ten of your fingers and use them as a replacement!" Maddie yelled. Max never doubted the possibility that Maddison could actually do that.

"You see now that's just a really weird thing to say. Anyway I need your help" Max replied.

"With what?"

"I need you to help me delete a video from a couple of my friends' phones and probably a few traces potentially on the internet"

"You mean that video of you kissing Oliver Harkins?"

"Yeah sure...wait a minute; how did you know about...I mean, what do you mean; me kissing Oliver Harkins?"

"Quit being a drama queen...I watched you guys through out your romantic play date...and that kiss was amazing!" Maddison said clasping her hands while making her descriptions. Max felt a little bit uncomfortable. He was destined to find out how Maddison could have been spying on him without him even noticing, but his major priority at the moment was to prevent that video from surfacing all over the internet.

"Whatever...are you going to help me?" Max added putting on his innocent and appeasing facial look.

"Already did...I deleted every single trace of it from Matthew's, Sarah's and Andy's phones...I deleted any duplicate files and I was able to delete it from all their cloud storage and from all root sources on Instaflash" Maddison said. Her drones had also captured audiovisuals of the evil trio's threats and she instantly swung into action to prevent her brother's reputation from going down in the mud.

"Woah! I can't believe it. Thanks so much Maddison. You're the best" Max said in his unspeakable excitement.

"Well I am really awesome, but dude...what the hell were you thinking?" Maddison said. It wasn't enough that she assisted her immediate older brother; she felt she could also pass a few warning notes as well

"Kissing a chick outside? In an open park?" Maddison continued as she walked closer to Max. The pain of her spilled popcorn appeared to have momentarily fled.

"Well what else was I supposed to kiss? The Ferris Wheel?" Max said in his sarcastic response.

"This ain't no joke Max...you gotta be a lot more careful. What if I wasn't a super smart genius? What do you think would have happened?" Maddison said.

"Well...worst case scenario; we'd move to San Francisco where we can all start new lives"

"My point is...you just gotta be on the look out. In every place we move to, people rise against us. You can't tell who's who and what their intentions for you may be" Maddison replied. She then placed her left palm on Max's alternate shoulder -

"...but whatever happens...little sis got your back, no matter what". Max and Maddie then hugged warmly; which was something that hadn't been seen for several years.

"I'm just really glad that no one's ever going to see that video" Max said.

"Actually...I still have the last copy of that video" Maddison replied.

"Maddie?! I thought you deleted it completely!" Max said.

"I did, didn't I? I thought I might save a copy for myself. So I stored one right here and I'm gonna watch it one more time before I finally delete it"

"Alright fine...Hey wait, were you watching Holey Molly?"

"Of course I was...it's my favorite toon"

"That is so weird" said Max as the two continued their squabbles for the next half hour. Maddison proved to be the hero of the day one more time.

Back on Ringdom's vintage Ringdobase, Cherry and Troy were undergoing serious sets of training exercises. The heroes were just filled with the desire to improve on the methods in which they used their powers and it was paying off very much. Neither of them had battled an active nemesis in almost a week. Their return to action was edging closer as the alert system in the Ringdobase went off loudly, indicating the presence of a strong miscreant.

On hearing the alert system, the heroes ran straight to Lieutenant Sanders who was unusually present today.

"What seems to be the problem Lieutenant?" Troy asked.

"It seems a notorious foe is back in town and she's just around Seattle Park headed straight to Boulevard Brooks" the middle aged combatant stated.

"She? Who are you talking about?" Cherry continued.

"It's Joao...and our feed back says she's after the life of that little girl Maddison!" Sanders expressly responded.

"You know what that means Captain"

"Yeah...duty calls!"

The heroes were about to run off instantly, but Lieutenant Sanders who apparently had something to share with the duo halted.

"Cap! Troy! Hold on...come with me" she said running off in a particular direction which the heroes were coerced to follow.