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For Max, the most difficult part of being the superhero Apid was hiding that fact.
Not from his family, not from Kim and Alix, not from his superhero partner, not from the rest of his classmates. No, the hardest person to hide from was Markov.
Which was hardly unexpected. After all, Markov not only spent a great deal of time around Max, he was also far better and processing and analyzing data than any human. If anyone had the pieces to put together, and could put them together, it was Markov. There had already been far too many close calls, one too many times that Markov had overheard Max talking to Pollen.
It was fortunate that Markov’s sensors couldn’t actually detect the kwami, and Max had been able to lamely pass Pollen off as an “imaginary friend”, convincing Markov not to speak of that to anyone else as it would be embarassing. It was as good of an excuse as any.
He should’ve known it couldn’t last. But he and Pollen had gotten complacent, and it was bound to happen sooner or later.
The battle of the day was over, and Max returned home, planning to unwind with some video games. But first, Pollen needed to eat.
“We’re running low,” he observed as he tossed her an apple. His mother had been pleasantly surprised by his apparent newfound interest in eating more fresh fruit. Max was just glad that it wasn’t making anyone suspicious. “Assuming no change in the current average rate of akumatizations and household eating habits, we should go purchase more tomorrow after school.”
“You are not going to go shopping with Kim and Alix again, are you?” Pollen asked. “I do not mean to malign your friends, of course, but I am not fond of bruised apples.”
“No,” Max agreed. “We probably shouldn’t do that again.” The last time he had tried to pick up fruit for Pollen while hanging out with his friends, Kim and Alix had apparently taken the large number of apples he had purchased as an invitation to start a juggling contest between them.
The results were exactly what anyone would expect.
“Max, my friend, is that you?”
“Yes, it’s me, Markov,” he called back.
“You are home approximately 24 minutes later than usual. I was worried. Were you with your friends?” Markov responded, his voice growing louder as he approached the kitchen.
“I just had to take care of something after school.” Specifically, an Akuma.
“I am relieved,” Markov said as he entered the room. “Do you think your teachers will ever allow me to return to class with you? It is lonely, staying here all day.” There was a hopeful, but sad, tone in his voice.
“I’m sorry, Markov,” Max said, hating to disappoint his best friend. “But probably not this year. Maybe next year the teachers will be more understanding. Marinette thinks we could try to get papers to get you enrolled as a student, but I don’t know if that will work…”
“Oh, that would be wonderful!” Markov said eagerly. “Your friend Marinette is very kind.”
“She is,” Max agreed. “But I don’t know if the administration would be. And even if they did enroll you, they might not put you in the same classes with me.”
To Max’s surprise, Markov did not respond right away. And when he did, it was not what Max expected.
“Max, my friend,” Markov said seriously. “I’m afraid my sensors are failing or malfunctioning.”
“What?” Max said. How? He had constructed Markov with the utmost care and top-of-the-line components. Could they already be starting to fail?
“My visual input is reporting back with a strange artifact in the data,” Markov said. “Resembling an half-eaten apple floating in mid-air. This, of course, I know to be physically impossible, therefore I must conclude that this is an error in my functioning.”
Max felt his heart skip a beat, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw Pollen freeze.
What a careless oversight! Markov couldn’t see or hear Pollen, so she hadn’t bothered to hide. But whatever protected kwamis from camera detection didn’t logically extend to the objects she interacted with. And neither Pollen nor Max had even considered that.
A mistake that led Max to a choice. He could go with Markov’s reasoning, pretend to fix the “faulty” part. But…he didn’t like lying to Markov. And what if it happened again?
On the one hand, no one was supposed to know.
On the other…Markov had already been akumatized, and had rebelled against Papillon. He wasn’t likely to be reakumatized after that.
Max looked over at Pollen, who looked equally lost. He looked back at Markov.
“That’s…not an error, Markov.”
“Not an error?” he repeated. “Please clarify.”
“This has to stay a secret,” Max said. “But…my “imaginary friend” is not actually imaginary. She’s here, but is undetectable to your sensors.”
A human might have reacted to such a statement with doubt – though, if Markov were human, he would be able to see Pollen, so the point was moot. But Markov simply asked, “Why is your friend undetectable to my sensors, Max?”
He adjusted his glasses. “That has been difficult to ascertain. She…does not appear to conform to physics as we understand it, nor consist of matter as we understand it.”
“Kwamis are beings of magic,” Pollen said. “Effigies of the abstract. Of course we will not be bound by mundane physical laws.”
Max relayed Pollen’s statement to Markov, who was quiet for a moment.
“I would like to meet your magical friend, Max. I have met your other friends and they are very interesting. I am certain your…kwami, as you stated…would be interesting to meet as well.”
“I would enjoy conversing with Markov directly as well,” Pollen said. “But it is not possible.”
Max started to relay this information, then paused. By Pollen’s logic, there shouldn’t be a way for the kwami to interact with anything in the physical world – yet clearly this wasn’t the case. Somehow, the Miraculous – a primarily physical object – bridged that gap, allowing the kwami to interact with humans and physical objects.
It stood to reason that there could be a way to facilitate that for electronics, as well.
Max rubbed his hands together. He had a new project to work on.