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Max let out a small sigh of relief. Juliette didn't seem to pay his awkward remark much attention, and he was grateful for it. She took to the air with more grace than Max had expected. Usually weightlessness made people clumsy and they freaked out, Juliette rose up to the light easily. In hindsight Max realizes he probably should have given her some warning but he had been to flustered to think properly.

She asked for instruction and he obliged.

"Okay. There is a lever on each side that control the shutters. They determine what shape the light comes out as." He began.

He turned on the light she was floating next to. A circle of light shone down on him.

"This one is a circle, which is fine. There's a knob on the side of the light. Moving it effects the focus of the light. Turn it left and the light gets softer turn it right and the light gets sharper." He continued.

He pulled up the next two lights, which were positioned one behind him and one on the other side of the stage.

"These three lights are the general lighting for the lead singer who will be standing here. Lights two and three look okay, but the one you are at is a little softer then the others and the radius of the light it's putting off is smaller. Light generally combines pretty well but since that light isn't putting out as much focused light as the other two it's making these bad shadows on my face and torso." He continued, gesturing towards the dark splotches on him.

He might not be the best at small talk but Max knew lighting and theater. Talking about his craft was boosting his confidence and he felt more and more comfortable as he went.

"Move the shutters so the circle covers my whole body, and turn the knob right until the shadows fade," He said, "Oh also my power works in 3 minutes bursts so you will feel it starting to wear off in a bit. Just come down and I'll give you another boost when that happens."

He stood there letting the light wash over him and waited. His curiosity was still peaked from her display a moment ago.

"So glowing? Do you have any other surprises for me while we are doing this?" He said.

She went on to the stage and stood. Max felt bad, out of the two jobs being the person standing on stage was the duller of the two positions. On the other hand it saved him the hassle of finding something else to use to test for shadows. She told him her name and he smiled. Juliette. It was a nice name.

"I'm Max." He said, fiddling with the focus ring on the lamp.

He looked back down at her, she was placed just right. He'd just turn on the lamp, make sure it was focused right and move on to number two. He flipped the switch on the side of the 10,000 watt lamp. It was primed to go on.

"So how long you lived in New York? I moved her about a month ago still getting used to the city " He supplied.

She was giving him a look, probably trying to figure out how he was floating. He got that alot with his power, people thought he was telekinetic or could fly. The best part was when he made something else float and messed with them.

"Okay. Hit the slider next to the #1 on the tablet and bring it all the way up." He told her, waiting to see where the dark spots would be.

$800 for one delivery.

Even as he approached the massive building Max couldn't believe his luck. His financial situation was looking worse and worse each day. This wasn't helped by the fact that he had spent a good $150 dollars building his new combat yo-yos.

Max had always been a passive guy, but small town Virginia hadn't prepared him for the streets of the big apple. He'd been in more scraps since moving to town then his entire life put together. Having the steel yo-yos tucked away in his fanny pack gave him comfort.

The idea to weaponize a childs toy had came to him a few nights before. He'd been tossing around a yo-yo in his apartment when the string broke and the small disk smashed a lamp. He had ran out to hobby lobby and the local hardware store and set to work. The finished project were four solid metal yo-yos wound with thin, durable wire. Two of them were blunt attacks while the other set had blades built into the mechanism that opened when the yo-yo spun out and reached a certain speed. They retracted when coming back. Perfecting that trick had cost Max a number of tiny cuts across his hands and arms.

Fun new toys aside Max had been commissioned to deliver a small package to the Jaager building. Upon delivery he would score $800 and be on his way.

He entered the lobby and walked up to the receptionist desk, where a woman sat. He had told her he had a delivery for "John Smith" and the woman took his picture and handed him a small ID badge reading "Max Rosewood-Guest."

"Just take the elevator up to the tenth floor. Take a left, two rights, and follow the hallways to the second door on the right." She said.

Max walked to the elevator and got in, punching the number ten. This was gonna be cake...

How many times can you walk the same white, sterile hallway before you lose your mind? Max was close to finding out. He'd taken a left and then a right and walked down the halls. He took the next left, or was it a right? And wound up where he started. This went on and on as Max walked through the odd hallways, security cameras glaring down at him as he went. Finally he stopped and leaned against one of the walls.

"What the hell am I doing?" He asked aloud.

"Yo Skrill drop it hard!"

Max bobbed his head as the beat dropped. The quick, rapid melody pounded in his ears. He could feel his body, even locked in combat, shifting to the beat as it accelerated. Back down on Earth Elliot squated and launched himself upward.

"This guy is a special kind of monster." Max thought.

Fighting under double gravity should have worn this guy down to exhaustion by now, but he just kept coming. To be able to leap up with basically double his normal weight on him wasn't easy. Max could feel the gravity trap he had on Elliot pushing down on him, but it wasn't going to last much longer.

Elliot flew upward, his arms taking the brunt of Max's attack. For a second Max almost felt bad, the change barrage had been a cheap trick, but he had needed an opening. He hadn't expected Elliot to actually take the hit. He had expected the green man to try to dodge, not power through.

The knee came up and slammed into Max's stomach. The fact that Max was so much lighter, coupled with the fact that Elliot's kick was being pulled down blunted the hit somewhat, but it still hurt like a bitch.

Max used the moment of impact as a chance to grab Elliot. His knee had flown in between Max's outstretched hands. Max twisted his arm and locked it around Elliot's leg at the knee. His free hand reached up and he grabbed his hat, he was gonna need to hold on.

He started spinning in midair as fast as he could, throwing his power around himself in an attempt to keep Elliot from getting any balance. 2Gs to the left, half gravity to the right, he changed it up as quickly as he could, building momentum as he spun. His body was used to the gravity, but the sudden change was putting a strain on him. He couldn't keep this up for long. He just needed to hold on long enough to build up enough power to toss the Martian back down to Earth and finish this.

Max smiled at Darkshift. She seemed like a pleasant girl. Her story of how she had come to have her name was fascinating to Max. He had never really spent an extended period of time with other mutants, hearing about a group of them that chose to reject the titles of society and branch out was interesting.

"I'll probably stick with Max for now." He said with a laugh, "Me and my parents might have our differences at the moment but they've always been pretty supportive X-gene or no X- gene."

Of course at the moment he was a little miffed at his folks. They had cut him off after he refused to come back and live with them. NYC had seemed like a good idea to them before he left, but I guess a month later and no college or job prospects changed their minds. This left Max with a studio apartment to pay for on his own and little financial stability.

He watched the girl shift her arm and was amazed. It was pretty cool. He could mess around with one of the laws of physics, but it felt more like a gimmick to him then something to inspire fear or awe.

Darkshift's power however, seemed so versitile.

"That's pretty fantastic. Obviously you can do mammals and reptiles. What about birds? Oh could you create a bunch of octopus tentacles that be sweet? Or maybe a patagium like flying squirrels? Base jumping would be a blast." He grinned.

He realized he was rambling. It was a bad habit of his when he got excited. He stuffed another bite of sandwich in his mouth and swallowed.

"So how long have you been in New York? What brings you to the big apple?" He asked.

"Nice to meet you Elliot." Max said.

He shrugged when questioned about his mistaken belief in the context of the competition. He knew it was a dumb mistake but he didn't feel embarrassed by it, those kind of things just happen.

Elliot stood, and Max's smile faded into a frown. Normally when he tagged someone with some extra gs they acted freaked out, or struggled to adapt. This guy didn't seem nervous, he didn't seem thrown off. He seemed calm. He was cracking jokes like he knew something Max didn't. That more than anything sent a cold shiver down the young dancer's spine.

Elliot was bobbing back and forth, moving with grace he shouldn't have been capable of weighed down. Max knew he only had a limited time before his gravity trap would wear off and Elliot would be back to kicking him around. He had to end it before that happend.

Max took a step back, planting his back foot. With a burst of effort he threw the strongest kick he could from his hip, propelling himself with a burst of sideways gravity. His leg flew out towards Elliot's stomach in a flash.

Max thought he had the guy for sure. He closed the distance easily and was almost at the guy when he saw him pull himself back. The tongue from his one hand slid down and back before redirecting itself at Max.

"No, he wouldnt" Max thought, just in time to get a face full of tongue.

Now Max had bad a few strange romantic encounters before moving to NYC, but having a green man lick him square in the face definitely took the cake. The tongue smacked against his cheeks and he had to hold back a gag.

His fist cleared the distance and he connected with the green man, though most of the power in the hit had been negated by his surprise. He felt his hand touch green, smooth skin and in that moment releases his power.

He extended a field of gravity, double that of Earth's as he tried before, and tossed the invisible field over the man. Hopefully that would slow him down a bit.

Max pulled his head away from the tongue and braced himself. He knew the counterattack was coming, but this close and with both of them in midair he wouldnt have many options other than to take it.