Maximus Boltagon Junior

Inhuman

The JBL peeked before founder Aaron Kile announced his retirement to a normal life then supported turning the JBL into a division of SHIELD, which ended in dozens of deaths (over 3x the JBL in less than 1/5 of the time). In the aftermath Whirlwind and the oldest survivors broke the JBL off from SHIELD to found a new team. While the team he spied for went through all these changes, Max secured his place as a trusted member of the New Generation by doing pretty much nothing, being his dad's non-heroic son and staying thrown in with villains. When the New Generation got their act together, Max slipped Whirlwind a heads up. The X-Men, Avengers and Inhumans were saved by JBL members. Most had settled into a period of peace with new generation heroes taking up the fight. The JBL helped them escape, plan and mount a counter-attack with heroes evacuating civilians around Rick Jones' Gamma Labs.

When Whirlwind rescued the Inhumans royal family, Max took the job of leading the assault on the Tower of Wisdom he'd evacuated them to. Whirlwind had since joined a cult-like group that taught him to expand his powers. He could see through air displacement and map areas through solid walls through it. He made sure all monitoring devices were destroyed in the wreckage from Max's ship. As soon as he assured Max they were, their mock fight ended. He introduced Max to the Inhumans, after the basics of his past were explain (JBL spy, raised by Maximus) they accepted him as Black Bolt's nephew. When the New Generation villains were defeated, Max returned to Attilan with his family. Max had impressed them all to a degree with his sign and knowledge of history (family and Inhuman).

After breakfast with the family his first day, Crystal took Max into town. She pointed certain places out during their walk. Before she pulled him into a tailor shop, he stopped outside "What is this place?"

Crystal realized she hadn't explained why she was taking him out, "This is a tailor. You're here to get measured for Inhuman clothes."

Max said "Okay." He followed her inside.

The man inside bowed to them, or Crystal. Max had decided he'd never get used to being royalty. The tailor asked "Who is this? A new flame?"

"Max," Max used his proper name "Maximus Boltagon Junior, Black Bolt's nephew."

Crystal explained "I was asked to get him proper Inhuman attire, Black Bolt accepted him into the royal family."

The tailor said "Let's get some measurements then."

Crystal stepped back as Max stepped up to where the tailor gestured. Crystal added "He's not Inhuman, a lab accident made him incapable of Terrigenesis. But he's just as brilliant as his father."

Max followed the tailors gestures, he almost off-handedly told Crystal "Triton is naturally immune to the reverse Terrigen's effects." The tailor finished his measurements.

Max asked "Are you gonna give me a tour or what?" as they left the tailor.

Crystal asked "How about we start with basics like your new home?"

"Lead the way."

She guided him through the Inhuman royal family house. Stopping at Maximus' lab she said "The lab is yours if you want it."

Max looked around, "This is beyond most labs, possibly state of the art. Completely compartmentalized so its hard to say."

Crystal asked "How do you know it's compartmentalized? Or even advanced?"

"The walls and table have indents, closed compartments." He pressed a slot between two compartments and it opened, "It's possible your locked out. Maximus is Inhuman but Terrigenesis didn't trigger anything, like it doesn't in me."

Crystal was called to lunch, "The royal family really wants to get to know you." She lead him back to the dining hall.

Max said "I should grab the reverse Terrigen to hand it over. Wouldn't want the thing getting triggered in an Inhuman city."

Crystal detoured to his room. He carefully tracked their steps so he knew one route between his room and his lab. He saw his Fantastic Four backpack but knew he didn't have it when he came. Crystal explained "Your stuff was dropped off by a friend."

Max grabbed his coat, "It's in here so I don't forget it somewhere." He draped his coat over his arm and walked beside Crystal to the dining hall.

He pulled out the thin black crystal after everyone was seated. "This is reverse Terrigen, I figured I should give it up for safekeeping. I perfected it by purifying it."

"You carry it around," Gorgon said, sounding something along the lines of offended.

"My father is Inhuman. Terrigenesis didn't trigger anything in him but he'd still be affected in some way." Max shattered the crystal and trapped the gas with his watch's force field on the table. "This is why I think Triton would be immune." He poured a little water out of a glass onto the gas and it condensed into a solid, black, thin crystal.

Karnak commented "Amazing."

Max turned the force field off, "Maximus didn't know about that and he invented it. When I triggered the original, a glass of water fell on the floor and that happened. There's a lot I don't know. Like if it's possible to defend against the effects. I'm immune to Terrigen Mists because of it, how could I know?"

"What would you need to test that?"

"Active Inhuman DNA," Max answered. They all looked appalled to varying degrees at the idea, clearly the implications of being test subjects struck them. Karnak was an exception since, like Max, his DNA is inactive. He looked more intrigued or bored to the untrained eye.

"Allow me to elaborate. Assuming you know DNA is in every cell of your body, active Inhumans are Inhumans who've been affected by Terrigenesis. What I meant is I'd need sample of DNA with the Inhuman genes active."

"You seem to like your lab," Crystal commented.

"I won't know what it can do until I open the compartments."

Medusa translated Black Bolt's sign for the table, "What compartments?"

"The entire lab is compartmentalized."He pulled out a remote from the lab compartment he'd opened, "I got this from one of 'em." The conversation focused on experiments Max was interested in conducting and science more than Max himself.

As they finished lunch Crystal asked Max "Do you know what made the crater Whirlwind found you in?" Everyone looked at her.

Before the family could scold her, Max answered her, "No, I don't think on it much. Did you know Whirlwind is Inhuman?"

"He is? How do you know?" Gorgon asked, playing right into Max's hand.

"No X-gene. He gets his codename from his powers, which aren't a legacy trait. The first Whirlwind used armor, the JBL Whirlwind uses Inhuman powers." Unwittingly thanks to Gorgon the conversation shifted away from Crystal's misstep.

At the end of lunch, Medusa gave Max some hair to conduct experiments with reverse Terrigen on. Crystal left Max alone for an hour to settle into his lab. Karnak brought Max's bag to the lab while Max was exploring, "I'd like to talk to you."

Max saw Karnak as both smart enough to see through the polite normal act he'd perfected to deal with people and the kind of person able to handle Max unaltered, his true personality. Max dropped the act "You want to gage my intelligence."

This directness surprised Karnak, he'd seen Max flip the switch before but like most would viewed it as professionalism because Whirlwind had focused him. He responded "Yes."

"I'm used to it. I could outsmart scholars before I had all my adult teeth."

"Right."

"You got questions, ask."

"I just want to talk."

Max explained himself "My mind, like yours, naturally evaluates everything. Unlike yours determining weakness is a byproduct, mostly I analyze things a lot. Instead of pressure points and centers of mass I can see precise height, background in mannerisms, analysis. It's a pretty good magic trick when I play it right." Karnak left, reasonably because Max had corrupted his study.

Crystal came back to the lab to find Max moved in, he pulled something into his jacket pocket from the table. As he left, shrugging on his jacket, he asked Crystal, "Where to?"

Crystal said "We're picking up your new clothes."

Max fell into step behind Crystal in public, uncomfortable leading and with the way people regarded royals. Crystal told him as they walked "Karnak reported, before Lockjaw took him back to the Tower, that you told him you naturally evaluate anything. Is that true? Why would you?"

"It's true. You're 5' 6". Karnak is inch taller than you at 5' 7". Medusa is 5' 11". Black Bolt and Triton are 6' 2", three inches taller than Medusa. Gorgon is the tallest at 6' 7", a foot taller than Karnak."

Crystal had stopped to listen to him, "Have you always done that?"

"I do it naturally but I can't alter my memory to add new information. I can't tell you my mom's height since she died giving birth and as a newborn I didn't know the word inch."

Crystal asked "What about your father?" Max froze, "I'm sorry."

He simply stated "5 foot 11."

"Same as my sister," Crystal added, walking towards the tailor.

"Yes. I can calculate height at first sight, even on those sitting down. I'd rather not continue this exercise."

Crystal led him through Attilan "I really am sorry for bringing it up."

"I enjoyed most of our journey, let's leave it at that."

"Karnak mentioned your demeanor changed when you realized what he was doing."

"Do you know what psychological defenses are?" Max asked. "I grew up in a world where it's a bad thing to constantly show you're the smartest guy in the room, especially when dealing with those older than you. It's viewed as egotistical even when you are the smartest guy in the room. So I put on an act, I act normal. Better than normal, I'm polite. All while my mind analyses everything, racing uncontrollably."

"You don't have to be that way here."

"I have to maintain the act or I'll lose it. My social skills pretty much consist of putting on my polite normal mask." They were nearing the tailor, Max got the door for Crystal.

The man in the shop gave them a package. Max took it as he explained, "Just the first set, I'll have more by the end of the week." Crystal thanked him. "My pleasure, Princess Crystal, Prince Maximus."

Max hadn't considered how people would address him. He wasn't used to being called Maximus or prince. As soon as the tailor said it, Max knew it was correct. He knew what to say but not how to phrase it with his new title. Crystal responded for him, "You do great work," proper Inhuman names were weird, even to a man of the world like Max. "I'm sure Max would agree, wouldn't you?"

Max answered "Yes, I agree."

As they left Max said "I'd like some time alone to study the reverse Terrigen," before Crystal could ask about being distracted in the shop. She could consider it Max's real personality taking over but it wasn't that and the matter would be addressed at dinner.

Crystal showed Max a shortcut home, not the quickest route (Lockjaw) but faster than the route they took there. At the palace, Max went to his room and opened the box. Inside was a set of clothes more like Black Bolt's than Gorgon's, as well as pajamas and less formal clothes. Max changed into the formal wear before going to finish his preparations for the reverse Terrigen experiments.

In a few hours he logged the properties of Medusa's hair sample, customized the passwords and controls. Triton came to inform him dinner was about to be served, "What are you doing?"

Max answered "Purifying the reverse Terrigen. It retains the dihydrogen monoxide, or water as you call it. I have to reduce how much water by shattering it so the water vapor can be removed then adding smaller amounts to revert it. I could probably make you something to quickly liquify and purify the water vapor in the air. The thing would be smaller than my watch, which is also medical originally." He sped up his process by removing all water vapor from the gaseous reverse Terrigen before measuring out the proper amount of water while Triton spoke.

"You mentioned making special technology with our powers at lunch. Which reminds me, I'm here to inform you it's almost dinnertime."

Using his remote to compartmentalize the lab after securing the partially purified reverse Terrigen by hand, Max was quickly ready to join Triton on his way to dinner. Max stopped just outside the lab amd ran back inside to grab something, "I made this after lunch, I just need a DNA sample to code it to you specifically then you can wear it anywhere like an insulin pump."

Triton said "Thank you, Max." The Inhuman royal family was more comfortable with calling him Max, possibly because they were more well versed in human ways or maybe because Maximus Senior's betrayal hurt them more.

Max said "Here," pointing on himself to where Triton should put the device. "One night there should sync it to you better than a million blood samples. Vital organs being where they are and all." Triton held the device over where Max pointed, before he could ask how to connect it the thing stuck to him. Max said "I wasn't sure how thick or sensitive your scales might be, once it's in sync with you only you can remove it. Press down in the middle to release it, not hard." He did and they were in the dining hall.

Max sat between Triton and Crystal while Black Bolt sat between his wife and Gorgon. Triton asked "What did you mean your watch is medical?"

Max answered "I didn't mean the force field. I go into seizures without it for starters."

Crystal brought up Max's change in behavior, as predicted she'd written it off as his true personality but wanted verification. Max corrected her, "He called me Prince Maximus. I'm not used to my proper first name."

He raised his hand to stop questions and explained his true personality to end speculation, "As I told Karnak my mind naturally evaluates everything. What I didn't tell him but I'm sure he understood by naturally, I mean constantly uncontrollably. I doubt anyone gets this part from what I told him but I constantly evaluate everything so I constantly see entropy. Therefore my choices are control my emotions and by extension my personality so I can feel happy or let my head rule my heart like normal people do and be constantly depressed by the entropy. Not really much of a choice, a toddlers know it's better to be happy than sad. My true personality as you call it is what happens when I stop controlling my mind and heart, I can only do it for short amounts of time before I have trouble regaining control of my emotions or start upsetting people. I did it with Karnak because his analytical mind eliminates the latter problem and the talk was never going to be very lengthy since he had to return to his tower."

"Wow. What's entropy?"

"It's basically the end of everything, entropy is the opposite of creation." Being polite, Max changed the subject to a more princely matter, "Even though I'm usually the smartest guy in the room, don't princes usually study at my age?"

Black Bolt signed "What would you like to study?"

Max signed back "I don't know." and they started off in their own conversation while the others had their own conversation.