Jealousy Clouds You're Judgement

It was night and Max slept on the couch he laid on when his friends were around, he woke up to the sound of his door opening and was frightened thinking it was the person Night warned him about, he sprang from the couch and onto his feet waiting to engage getting into a fighting stance then he realized it was his parents.

"Oh, it's just you guys" he sighed in relief.

"Who else would come to the house at 10pm at night" his father said.

"You may never know" he answered.

"Well, it's us so you can get out of that fight stance" his mom pointed out.

Max looked at himself and noticed he was still in his fight stance then he returned to normal and put his right arm to the back of his head then scratched his hair.

"What's wrong Max" Lizzy asked.

"Well," he said before gulping. With this new threat on the loose, everyone dearest to him would be put in harms way and he didn't want anything to happen to his parents, Ramon and Jessica. "Since the new influx of customers these past four months I hardly get to see you guys" he said.

"And?" his mom persisted. With his father dropping somethings in the kitchen.

"We don't spend time like we used to" he said turning his face away from his mother.

"Oh, is my baby looking for some attention?" she teased walking towards.

"I'm not a baby anymore mom" he said controlling his face from going red.

She hugged him and said, "Don't worry, your dad and I will always make time for you"

"You mean it?" he said looking at his mother.

"Yes, we love you Max, always have, always will" His father said walking in from the kitchen.

"I love you guys" he said hugging his mom back.

The three hugged each other and Max vowed in his heart to protect them no matter the danger, no matter the cost.

"How about a fishing trip next week Saturday?" Bill asked.

"Sounds good to me" Max said as the hug broke up.

"Same here, I'll make sure to tell the guys at the restaurant that we won't available for the weekend" Lizzy said.

"But the work pile is something else" Bill said.

"Don't worry, I'll help out the best I can to create the time. I really haven't been stopping by as frequently as I should" said Max.

"That would really be helpful" said his father.

"Alright, good night mom and dad" he said walking towards the stairs.

"Good night" they chorused.

Max had also proposed that if he was going to spend more time the next week investing in his relationships with his friends and family, he would need to tell Night that as well so the others would be aware of his absence.

"SUN! What did you do?!" a voice broke through the silence of his room.

"I did what needed to be done" He answered lying on the couch with his eyes closed.

"That did not entail killing someone and destroying his base, what if they track you?" then said walking towards the light to reveal he was Clinton.

"Don't worry about it, I took care of all the cameras" he answered in a relaxed tone.

"This is a mess, how does this work in our favor in getting your brother back?!"

"Chill out, where's is your excitement for the hunt?" he answered.

"I do not appreciate that tone you're giving me"

"Gosh man" he sighed.

"Don't man me, I'm still your superior"

"Okay Mr. superior, just lay back and relax and see my plan come together, I just want to have a little fun" Sun said.

"I hope your fun ends up with me getting my hands back on our project"

"Don't worry it will in the end"

.............................................................

The day went by in a flash with Max spending most of his time at Crystal view helping out his parents in waiting tables and ensuring that everything was running well at the back, he worked his butt of and he was given an hour break. This was what he was waiting for so he could go see Night, he dashed home as quickly as possible and changed before taking to the sky, he arrived the observatory and from its appearance, you knew something bad had happened. The front wall and door were not there, there were holes through the roof and the elevator was toast, he just hoped that the worst hadn't happened to Night. Just at that same moment, Water Woman, Boulder Bowler and Ravage all received anonymous texts asking them to hurry to the Den and they assumed it was from Night as he had their hero cell numbers, and only he sent anonymous texts or gave anonymous calls.

"I wonder who did this, or even found out that this was his lair" he said hovering into the building.

With the elevator gone, tipped it out so that he could hover down and when he got to the Den, he was astonished at what he found.

"Oh, my word, what happened here" Maverick said taking in all the damage that the place had incurred. "It's a total wreck, everything is a mess" he added with his eyes darting around looking at the damage.

His eyes then fell upon something in the dark and he activated his infa-red vision and saw Night lying on the floor with blood around him.

"Oh my God NIGHT!" he screamed rushing towards him.

He held onto his body and held him from his back covering his fingers in blood as he raised him to a sitting position, he had a very faint pulse and his breathing was so suttle that Max almost wrote him off as dead.

"Night are you okay?" he asked as his body was now sitting up and just above his head he noticed something, like a writing.

He focused on it and zoomed in and saw the message his brother left him, he was both scared and angry at the same time concluding that it must have been the shady person Night talked about that must have done it. Something slammed through the top of Den and opened up a hole so wide that it illuminated the entire Den, it was Boulder Bowler, Water Woman and Ravage.

"Guys, Night is in deep trouble, we need to get him to a hospital as quickly as possible" Maverick said getting up to his feet.

They walked out of the cloud of dust after landing and examined what had happened before two jumped to a conclusion already full of hate.

"You did this, I know you did this" Water woman said with her voice echoing like thunder as she pointed at him.

"Yes, he got here before us and his hands are covered in blood" Boulder added.

"I didn't do anything, I just sat him up so that he could breathe better" Maverick defended himself with the tension building.

"LIAR! You are the only person strong enough to cause this much damage" Wonder Woman insisted.

"Guys let's not jump to conclusions here, there are villains capable of doing this like Warthog or that Quantum guy. Need I remind you that Night also worked in other countries so it is possible someone from there might have done this" Ravage reasoned.

"Then he made a deal with them and led them here!" Boulder said.

"You can't possibly know that" Ravage said in his defense.

"Why on earth would I do that I'm a hero just like you guys, there's no way I would do this" Maverick said.

"You LIE!" Water Woman continued.

"How dumb can you BE!" Maverick lashed out at them angered by their accusations. "Why would I trash this place, beat him up and remain here for you guys to find me".

"Maybe so that you can kill us as well" Boulder Bowler said.

"What the, are you guys not thinking properly, there's no way he could have done this!" Ravage yelled.

"Shut up you" Water Woman said blasting him into the wall with water knocking him out. "You defend him like you know him, it's time for us to beat you until you confess why you did this"

"You don't need to do this; Night is alive and you're here acting like brainless monkeys" Maverick said as they walked closer to him.

"How dare you call me a monkey!" Boulder yelled slamming his fists together as a boulder formed and was launched at Maverick who casually deflected it with a palm swipe.

"Why can't you see the clear picture" Maverick still tried to reason.

"Quiet you, you will experience a slow and painful death as I fill your lungs with water" Water Woman said. (I'm just gonna call her WW from now on).

"I will not fight my fellow heroes" Max said.

"Then this is going to be easier than I expected" Boulder said.

WW threw large waves of water from his side as he casually flew up dodging them.

"Don't do this please" he pleaded.

Boulder Bowler then threw another boulder at him as he moved to the right and dodged it as it flew through the wall creating another hole. Then WW grabbed him by the leg and flung him towards Boulder Bowler who had prepared a hammer just as Ravage woke up to the sight of him hitting Maverick with it launching him out of the Observatory and into the city. What a hit it must have been. The two then jumped to the sea below with WW carrying them across with a moving pillar of water.

"Those two are morons and blinded with jealousy, I wonder how they became heroes" Ravage said expressing his anger just as he heard a cough.

His eyes moved to Night as he saw him cough again and his heart was now full of hope. He dashed towards him and held him.

"Who is that?" he said with his weak voice, it was still a huge surprise that he was still alive after taking all that damage.

"It's me Mark" he said with tear forming in his eyes.

"Oh, what..... are you... doing here?" he said before coughing.

"The kid and the rest of us found you here but the other two accused him of doing this to you so they're talking it out with their fists"

"That explains... the new holes"

"Sit still, I'm going to get your spare bike up and running and then I'll get you to a hospital" Ravage said standing up.

"You…can't take me...looking like this"

"So, what am I going to do?" he asked.

"Strip me...."

"What the hell?!!"

"....I have casual clothes... underneath" he finished his sentence before his eyes shut.

"Oh, don't worry Mike, I'll get you out of here soon" He said darting towards a sheet of metal under where one of the sofas used to be.

"Sorry kid, you'll have to take on those two without me" he murmured.

Max flew through and apartment building then skipped of a pickup truck then onto the ground, he shook his head getting up after being wacked by a pillar of stone. News channels were covering the story and it was going global that three heroes were fighting each other and no one ever imagined a calm Sunday afternoon would turn out like this. Jessica's phone rang endlessly as she was trying to sleep, she picked it up to see fifty missed calls from Ramon so she picked it up and called back.

"You better have a good reason for disturbing me doing my afternoon nap" she said angrily.

"Put on your TV and turn to any news channel" Ramon said.

"Is that what you're calling me for?!" she said with anger rising within her.

"For once Jess put on your TV with no questions" Ramon blasted her.

She murmured ending the call and going down stairs in her pajamas and put on her TV, it was on a nature channel that she watched last night and with her parents out of town for the weekend there was no reason for it to be on at this time but as she put on a news channel, she stood in shock reading the headline.

"It appears that Water Woman and Boulder Bowler have turned on Maverick or it could be the other way around. Whatever it is, its not clear what started the fight but it sure isn't looking good for Maverick, he's been on the receiving end for most of the fight" the male reporter said.

Jessica quietly sat down on her sofa and watched for how it would all unfold.