End of Summer Festival (End)

--- Maya ---

“It’s… it’s because I’m an M.A.D…”

Vi froze. “What?”

“I, um,” She swallowed apprehensively. “I said, I’m an M.A.D…”

“W-what do you mean?” Vi frowned.

“I mean, my head… it’s not normal. And that’s why I handled this so well.” She admitted. “Not because I’m more mature, or responsible, but because my brain isn’t… right.”

“My, that’s…”

“Then again we already knew that what with the bipolar, the ADHD, the autism spectrum, and that’s all before we get into the weird combinative disorder that I think is a mix of DID and schizophrenia. Then again those same voices make me as smart as they do, so is it really schizophrenia or is it my power, I mean other M.A.D.s talk about ‘hearing the whispers’ but none of them talk about actually talking with the voices in their head or those voices talking back like mine do. And even then-”

“Maya!” Vi cut into her ramblings. “Can you… can you please slow down, I’m… I’m having a bit of trouble processing…”

“Oh… sorry…” She apologized quietly.

“No, no, Maya, it’s…” Vi sighed. “You’re saying you’re an M.A.D., a mentally augmented deviant, right?”

She nodded, not quite trusting her voice.

“That’s…” Vi ran a hand down her face before sighing again. “How, how sure are you?”

Rather than voicing an answer she pulled out her COMP and opened her MAP () before handing it to Vi.

“Um, what is this?”

“It’s a mini-map, it shows everyone within a certain distance of the user.” She explained, before clicking one of the dots and causing a small pop-up on screen. “The brighter dots are people with a cell phone or something, if you click them it’ll pull up a bunch of information on the person. The one or two red dots are the people who have a record with a violent crime.”

Vi blinked, before messing with the COMP opening and closing a few tabs as she ran a few simple scans on people.

“Why didn- did you use this to help us find Izzy?” Vi asked with a frown.

“When we were by the funhouse and our search was starting to drag on.” She admitted. “I got a little impatient and was starting to get antsy with all of the monsters nearby.”

“I…” Vi was gnawing on her lip as she looked around a bit. “How… long have you known you were an M.A.D.? I mean, don’t they test for that at the schools?”

“Yeah, they um, do.” She nodded. “But since they’ve only had those tests for like a decade now, I guess I just slipped through the cracks. I mean I didn’t even figure out I was an M.A.D. until a couple of months ago, when I started hearing the whispers.”

“Whispers?” Vi repeated with some concern, as she pawed at one of her still red eyes.

“Yeah, I um, looked it up when I first started ‘sparking out’, thought I was going crazy.” Maya explained, before running her tongue over her lips. “Still might be…”

Vi gave her a sad look. “My…”

“Hey, no, I get it. It’s part of the whole Deviant thing.” She cut Vi off before her sister could get started on that track of thought. “I’ve looked into it a bit, and pretty much all Deviants have one kind of mental disorder or another. And even if M.A.D.s have the most quantity, ours aren’t the worst in their significance, or it’s a lot of little issues instead of a few big ones.

“Maya, that’s still not…” Vi bit her lip, deciding not to finish that thought, before giving another sigh. “I’m… I’m guessing you haven’t told mom and dad?”

She shook her head. “No. I didn’t… I didn’t want them to focus on all of that.”

“What do you mean?” Vi pressed, shifting a bit closer.

“It’s… I don’t know.” She admitted with a sigh of her own. “I just, I wanted to keep it to myself. At least until I could actually make something of myself.”

Vi frowned at that. “How so?”

“I…” She paused, considering the implications of saying she was going to be a hero, or how before that she was planning on working for a gang to try and bring some extra income into their house, before shaking her head.

“There are… a lot of ways M.A.D.s, even teenage ones, can make a profit. In fact, there’s this whole club of M.A.D.s who either make things to sell at little shops or just build stuff as a hobby.” She eventually answered, figuring that a club of small time M.A.D.s sounded a lot safer than admitting she wanted to be a hero.

“Maya, why would you…” Vi stopped, before starting again. “Why do you think you have to do that?”

“You’re the eldest and you’re going to college, Tommy’ got his band, Izzy has her martial arts, and Seamus is the youngest.” She listed, before giving a bitter chuckle. “What do I have?”

“My, you’re, you’re smartest one of us,” Vi pointed out wrapping an arm around her. “a-and I’m sure you’re going to go so far.”

“Because of my powers.”

“W-what?” Vi blinked.

“I’m the smartest, because my power literally turns me into a super genius.” She explained. “Meaning, again, the only thing that really makes me ‘great’ in our family is the fact that I’m an M.A.D.”

“Maya, that’s not true.” Vi argued. “You’re what makes you great.”

She gave a snort of amusement at that. “Sure I am.”

“Maya, you are-”

A ringing cut off whatever Vi was going to say, causing her to scowl at her phone as she pulled it out.

“Go ahead and answer it.” Maya told he.

“But My-”

“No. It’s fine.” She assured her, perhaps a bit forcefully. “The whole point of this, is that the way you handled this was fine, and the way I handled it was weird, not you.”

“My, you know that’s not-”

With a frustrated sigh she checked her sister’s phone and said. “Answer it, it’s mom.”

Vi frowned, before giving a sigh of her own. “Alright, if you’re sure.”

“I am.”

With thinned lips Vi shook her head and answered the phone.

“Hey, mamá…” Vi gave her a look. “Yeah, she’s with me… Okay… Well, we’ll meet you by the exit in a few minutes… Alight, yo también te amo.”

“They finally letting us leave?” She asked once Vi had hung up.

“Yeah, but My we’re no-”

“Alright, then we better get moving.” She steamrolled, feeling too emotionally drained from the day to keep dealing with this right now.

“But Maya…” Viviana trailed off when she just continued on towards the rest of the family, before following as an awkward silence enveloped them for the rest of their short journey.

“There you girls are.” Her mamá sighed in relief, once she noticed them, before once more pulling both of them into a hug.

“Alright, now that everyone’s here, we can get going.” Her dad told them, as they were ushered through the checkpoint the police and Sanctuary had set up. “Just a little longer and we can put this whole mess behind us.”

(Not all of it…) She couldn’t help but think, as she noticed Viviana still giving her a concerned look out of the corner of her eye.

(Why won’t she just get that we’re fine?!) Her inner passion shouted.

(Several reasons I’m sure.) Her inner logic admitted.

(The why doesn’t matter right now, since that’s future Maya’s problem.) She told the voices. (Right now I just want to go home and get some sleep.)