Defenders Assemble

by Maxis122

Chapter Three : Trust

Max felt a slight ting in the back of his head, specifically the place in which he had been hit. As he opened his eyes he came to see the black room around him. Turning his head to one side, he could see a large dead locked door. And when he looked above him he could see a giant mirror. An interrogation room.

“Damn” Max breathed as he put a hoof to his sore head. The pain still seemed to linger in there but his injuries were healed. It seemed like his attempt to escape was for nothing, he was cornered. He considered the thought that he should have gone along with it and maybe he would have been let free. But the thoughts about what had happened shadowed that idea.

He got himself to his hooves and looked around the room properly. It was a simple black room with a mirror, and a single dead lock door. There was also a table in the middle with two chairs sat at it, on opposite ends. Meaning that this was probably his prison. And since he had woken up he knew that they would not waste any time in coming to talk to him. After clicking his neck he decided that it would be a better idea to talk this one out, or else he would have to answer to those ponies again. The thought made him shudder as he felt the spot in which he was knocked out.

“Feeling numb?” A voice sounded from behind Max, causing his head to shoot around. “Agent Whooves” The pony greeted.

Max sighed as he looked at the pony, “Look, I don’t want any trouble”

“And we’re not looking for any either” Whooves replied quickly, leaving no room for him to finish. “We were hoping that we could get you in on more peaceful terms”

“Yeah, beating me up is real peaceful” Max remarked.

“But now that you are here, I wish to talk to you” Whooves then walked into the middle of the room, where the table was.

“Tough, I don’t wish to talk to you” Max snarled as he stormed over to a corner of the room.

Whooves sighed, “Look, I’m sorry about what happened in Trottingham”

“Oh yeah?” Max continued to avoid looking at him.

“But they were new, they weren’t even supposed to take part” Whooves explained.

“For an agency, you really know how to pick your team” Max said as he put a hoof on his head.

“We can only try” Whooves replied.

“Sure” Max began as he turned to look at the agent. “For starters you tried to recruit me!”

“Because you had desirable skills” Whooves explained.

“No... It’s because of my curse” Max shouted back, slamming his hoof on the desk. Everyone took a step back as he did that, knowing that he was not a happy pony. Then again, he’d had a bad day.

“That’s only a small part of it” Whooves said slowly.

“Likely story” Max then pulled the chair back and plopped himself down on it. “So until you feel like telling me the truth, I’m not talking!” He shouted as he sunk down into his hooves. Whooves sighed as he then turned around and walked out of the room, having the door locked behind him. He then walked down a small corridor to get to a room, in which the rest of the team were watching from.

“He’s not going to listen” Lyra started.

“Not after what happened” Derpy added.

“I doubt he would want to work with me, after hitting him” Lyra admitted.

“And I guess following orders only got me a bad impression as well” Derpy sighed.

“He just needs some time to think things over, recover” Whooves explained as he loosened his tie and sat down on one of the chairs. The room was then engulfed in silence. Nopony knew what to say, they had a member in the opposite room. But they couldn’t get him on their side. There was something that he was that nopony had picked up on. All but one.

“Let me have some time with him” Twilight spoke out.

“You crazy?” Lyra spat as she gave a very confused look over at Twilight.

“No, I just think he needs a different approach” Twilight explained.

“How so?” Whooves asked, slightly intrigued by the idea.

“You have been giving him stone cold faces, nothing but you wanting to get to the chase. Why not find out more about him?” Twilight explained.

“How’s that going to help? You already know pretty much everything about him” Derpy admitted as she gazed back through the glass again.

“Maybe, but I don’t know him” Twilight stated.

“I don’t get it” Derpy said dumbfounded.

“In do” Luna said as she entered the room, not being noticed by anypony.

“Director” Whooves stood to attention as she entered, neatening up himself in the process.

“At ease, but she’s right” Luna repeated.

“But...” Whooves tried to object, but he only received the look of “just don’t even try” from the Princess. Sighing he nodded to the guard, who guested for Twilight to follow him. Twilight left the room and followed the guard to the door, where he stopped and turned to her.

“If you have any problems, press the red button under the desk” The guard said, Twilight simply nodded in reply. He then opened the door and let Twilight in.

The room was completely silent when the door closed. Just being Twilight and Max in the room was enough to make it uncomfortable. Currently Max had decided to use the time of ponies not being in the room to fall back asleep. Twilight the approached the table and sat in the only other chair, facing Max. Unlike Whooves, she wasn’t wearing a suit or anything, which have may been one of the reasons why Max was intimidated. After sitting down and making herself comfortable, she prodded Max.

“Mhumm” Max groaned as he raised his head. After blinking and yawning he looked at the unicorn sat in front of him.

“Hello, my names Twilight Sparkle” Twilight greeted cheerfully.

“Umm, hi?” Max responded nervously.

“What’s your name?” Twilight asked. Max frowned as he considered the question, shouldn’t she already know?

“Max Plasma” Max replied uneasily, now sustaining eye contact.

“How are you feeling?” She asked.

“A little numb from being hit it the head” Max replied, glaring over at the mirror.

“So Max, you probably remember me from Trottingham” Twilight explained.

“One of the unicorns that teleported in front of me, yes - I remember” Max confirmed.

“I was just wondering” Twilight began, “Why did you run away?” Max looked down for a second as he thought about the question. Running away was something that he did a lot, he would rather cower away then put others in danger.

“I was trying to get away” Max replied.

“But why?” Twilight repeated. Max rolled his eyes, only to see that Twilight remained unchanged.

“I guess I didn’t want certain things to happen” Max said vaguely.

“Like?” Twilight pressed. Max looked over the unicorns face, seeing no signs of her stopping her questioning.

“Like others getting hurt...” Max mumbled, shifting back a little and looking away as he did.

“Excuse me?” Twilight inquired, not hearing what he said.

“I didn’t want others to get hurt” Max mumbled again, but this time it was even more muffled.

“One more time” Twilight sighed, seeing that she might not get anywhere with him.

“Must I repeat myself, I didn’t want to hurt anypony” Max said clearly, and with a lot more volume.

“How were you going to hurt anypony during a conversation?” Twilight asked, still being a little cloudy on how everything fitted together.

“When she started to lie to me, a slight tick went off inside me” Max explained, returning his gaze to Twilight. “From that point I knew that I could easily lose control of myself, and if I did...” Max then returned to a silent state as he sighed again, falling into his hooves.

“We know that you don’t want to hurt anypony innocent, Max” Twilight stated as she put her hoof out and held Max’s hoof. “So that’s why we tried to bring you in”

Max then raised his head to show the destroyed state that he was in, “So you could put me in a cage and lock me up for good, I guess”

“No, we want to help you” Twilight said calmingly, “We know how you’ve tried to control your powers in the past and, well... haven’t had much success with that. So we want to give you a chance to get full control over your powers”

“And how is that going to work? Me being you lab rat while you find a solution” Max couldn’t help but let out.

“Not at all” Twilight assured as she put on a warm smile, “If anything, I want to help you. It’s not fair being plunged into a place with no idea of what you should do. I know that. But if you let others help you, then it might not turn out so bad”

“Y-you mean it?” Max asked, looking into her eyes with his own watery ones.

“I mean it” Twilight confirmed. Max then tried to smile, but all of the stress seemed to grab onto him and cause the smile to be held back. After wiping his eyes he attempted to speak again.

“Thank you” Max said as he grinned.

“Don’t worry Max, it will be alright” Twilight responded, knowing that she had gotten further than any of the others. Twilight then looked over at the mirror and nodded.

“I get that you don’t want me to be a walking time bomb and all” Max began, thinking about his next few words for a moment. “But it feels like you’re giving a lot more to me than I’m giving to you”

“Well, about that” Twilight started, “There is a way to put your powers to a better use”

“A better use?” Max questioned, looking intently at the unicorn.

“I guess you heard about the Defenders Program” Twilight began, receiving a nod of acknowledgement. “We thought that if we can help you get your powers under control, you can use them to protect the innocent”

“Using my powers to protect ponies?” Max pondered, “I’ve only know them to hurt others”

“Well, maybe this hurt can be condensed and used to stop the bad things, that happen against the innocent ponies that you want to protect” Twilight explained.

“How?” Max asked, wanting to know even more.

“Let us help you, and you will learn - trust me” Twilight concluded, holding her hoof out in the air. “So, are you in?” Max hesitated for a moment. He was being offered a chance to sort out his problems, control his power and maybe help some ponies while he was at it. This was an once in a lifetime opportunity for anypony. Then again, nopony was really like him.

If he didn’t take the chance, he would be sent back to square one, in which he would be stuck in this room until somepony else came to talk to him. That or they would lock him up for good or let him go. The latter being less likely. So, he really did see this as a one way thing. He should do this, this would make his life so much better. The advantages seemed to drown the disadvantages. Literally. So, he raised his hoof and put it against Twilights.

“I’m in” Max announced.