Every Day I Wake Up And I Want To Design Luna Maximoff A Superhero Costume But Every Day I Wake Up And

Kidnapped...Again

Summary:  Franklin Richards and Luna Maximoff had really hoped that supervillains were done kidnapping them. But here they are. Kidnapped...Again.

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The yellow suited AIM agents that the Wizard had handed Franklin over to, shoved him through a doorway. He hit the ground hard enough to make his head spin. He snapped back quickly, jumping towards the door, but reached it only too late. 

“Hey!” He shouted to the agents behind the closed door who he knew couldn’t hear him anymore. “Let me out!” 

There was always a way out. His dad had taught him that. He just had to find it. He looked along the side of the door, trying to find a weakness when a voice from behind him made him start. 

“There’s no use in doing that. I checked it already.”

Franklin spun around to find a blonde girl with tanned skin and blue eyes, who was just around his age. Who he recognized.

“Luna…? Luna Maximoff?”

She nodded, not at all panicked as he had been moments before, and gestured to herself. “C’est moi.” 

Franklin took a breath, trying to calm his still pounding heart. Gosh, he hated being human. “What are you doing here?”

She shrugged. “What are you doing here? I got captured.”

Franklin raised a shoulder to her in response and glanced back to the closed door. “So, how are we gonna get out of here?” 

Luna smiled, her blue eyes shining, “Oh c’mon, Frankie,” He winced at the old nickname, “You know the drill. We sit and wait for our parents to come get us. I mean, it’s not us they want.”

“True. You sure the door won’t open though?” 

“Yep.” She crossed her arms, leaning against the wall. 

Franklin noticed a small window on the wall above her. “What about the window?” He walked over and she stood up beside him. They had similar heights, her being a touch shorter, but they could both just see out the window. 

“Nah, “ She said, “The only thing it’s good for is getting a nice view of some dirt. But the glass is too thick to break, I already tried.” She held up a bruised knuckle for him to see.

“Oh.” 

Luna nodded, and took her seat in the corner again. She pulled a pair of pink sunglasses from her pocket and put them on. Franklin stayed standing, looking around the room. It was clearly a cell. Blank metal walls, the one window and a strong door. There wasn’t even the luxury of cots. 

He let out a small sigh. 

Below him, Luna gave something of a bitter laugh. “Ha. Mood.” 

He gave a chuckle that mirrored hers.

The silence of the room filled his ears and he clenched his fist. He wished again he still had his powers. Then they would’ve been out of here five minutes ago and the Wizard would be locked up in prison again. 

Luna shifted suddenly. “Wait!” She yanked her sunglasses off, looking up at him. “Don’t you have super god powers??” 

Franklin scowled. “No.” He said, sharper than he would’ve liked. “I lost them.” 

He saw Luna’s eyes widen at his tone. But despite him, she said sympathetically, “That sucks.” 

“Yeah. Yeah, it really does.” He huffed.

Now Luna’s face hardened. “Well, if you’re going to be salty about it, go sit in the corner.” She pointed firmly to the opposite side of the room, which was only a few feet away from her.

Franklin opened his mouth to give a retort, but instead closed it and dragged himself to the corner, slumping down onto the cold floor. 

Again came silence. Of all the times to be de-powered, now was certainly the worst. It had been years since a villain had gone the route of kidnapping to get through to his parents, so he had assumed he was through with this. He hated to admit it, but he still woke up in a panic after dreams of kidnapping like when he was a child. He assumed Luna did the same.

It had been years since he’d seen Luna. About five and a half. She had grown up, the same as him. Like him, her face had lost it’s baby fat and her innocent eyes had been replaced by the wise eyes of a child who had been forced to grow up too soon. She had become what he considered to be very pretty, though he wasn’t going to admit that to himself quite yet. 

Time passed. Or Franklin assumed time passed. He couldn’t even rely on the ticking of a clock to measure it with. He only hoped his family and Luna’s were on their way to get them. 

After what Franklin thought was maybe an hour, Luna moved in her corner. She pulled something from the too big brown jacket that she wore over her Inhuman made green and gold costume. It was a deck of cards. 

She turned to him and held it up. “Wanna play?” 

Franklin’s annoyance at the situation had dissipated. He said, “Sure,” and scooched towards her where they met in the middle of the room. 

They both sat cross-legged and decided to play a simple game of War. Franklin won twice. Luna took the gold three times. 

After they tired from War, (with Luna joking that she was also tired of constant war in her normal life as well) Franklin suggested the game Spit, which he assured her had nothing to do with the actual action of spitting. It took her a while, but once she got a hang of the game, it occupied them for another two hours. 

They could now see out the window that the sun had set. They went to their respective corners, both wished for blankets and pillows, turned away from each other, and went to sleep. 

Luna woke first and played some Solitaire while Franklin snored in the corner. He woke soon after her and they played cards for a few more hours before becoming sick of it. 

There were a few times that morning that they heard the screeching of alarms throughout the AIM base and had hoped that their parents had come for them, but all was silent and they sat up against the wall to wait again.

“Oh!” Luna threw her arms up and began to pat down her jacket again. 

“What?”

Luna pulled a black rectangle from her pocket that rattled as she shook it. “Checkers!”

She put the rectangle on the ground and folded it open to reveal a miniature checkers set. Franklin just stared at it, eyebrows lowered. Luna pushed her braids behind her ears as she set up the checkerboard.

“Uh, Luna?”

“Yeah?”

“Why do you have so many games in your jacket?”

She grinned widely. “Well you never know when you’re gonna get kidnapped, Franklin. Plus,” Her smile turned rebellious. “The Inhuman court is extraordinarily boring.”

Franklin found himself smiling back and they launched into a game. Luna was white, Franklin black. He only won once. She trumped him five times before they gave up.

By this time, it was only midday, shown by the position of the sun outside the window. And by this time, the two of them were starting to go slightly insane from the boredom. 

They sat against the window wall, beside each other now, trying to figure out that if they didn’t think about anything if the time would pass quicker. 

—

“Call Lockjaw?” Franklin pulled absentmindedly on his spandex clad knee.

Luna shook her head. “Telepathic shields. I can’t get through. Plus, I think we’re too far away to call him anyway. He’s with my mom and family visiting Hala. And my powers don’t work either.”

“Shoot.”

— 

“So...are we going to talk about the black emo hair?” 

Franklin could hear Luna smiling without looking at her. “Nope.”

“It’s okay. I dyed my hair pink for like two years.”

— 

“You know what? We should start a Frequently Kidnapped Club.” Luna grinned, her tiredness showing.

“Heh. Frequent Kidnappees.”

“Heh.” 

“We should get t-shirts.” Franklin suggested.

— 

“Where’d you get that jacket?” 

“Oh.” Luna rubs the bottom of the weathered leather between her soft fingers. “It’s my dad’s. I know it’s too big.”

He could hear the affection in her voice. “It’s nice.”

“Thanks.”

— 

“Well I hope this doesn’t cause a family reunion.” Luna said. 

“What?”

“My family is a mess. I don’t want them coming together over anything, even if it’s me being kidnapped. It would probably just end with my dad punching Magneto in the face.” She laughed. “Though, that would be pretty hilarious.”

“Your family makes me think my family is functional.”

“Franklin.” She rolled her eyes at him. “Your family is functional.”

“From the outside maybe. We’ve got our issues.”

“Well at least your Grandpa isn’t a supervillain mutant terrorist.” 

“That’s fair.”

— 

Franklin’s stomach rumbled. “Do they feed us?” 

“Yeah. I got a Happy Meal yesterday! They even let me keep the toy!” Luna pulled a pink My Little Pony out of her pocket to put on display. “Do you know how long it’s been since I had McDonald’s?”

Franklin gave her a sideways smile, “Well they don’t have McDonald’s on the moon do they?”

“No, no they do not. But they should. Oh! I’ll add that to Ahura’s and I’s list of things to do when his dad dies and he takes the throne of Attilan.” 

“Your what now?” 

“Yeah, my cousin and I have this list. The first thing on that list is to fire the whole Genetic Council. It’s gonna be great!” 

“Huh.”

— 

“How long do you think it’ll be until they find us?”

Luna’s reply revealed her exhaustion. “Who knows.”

“Do you think we’ll die here?”

“Franklin Richards!” She moved to look him in the face, sudden anger on her own. It softened in a moment, showing the maturity of someone who knew the value of quickly passing anger. “Don’t. I really don’t want to think about that right now, okay?”

“Okay.”

— 

“So that list that you and your cousin started for when Black Bolt dies? What else is on that list?”

Luna held out a hand and began to count with her fingers as she spoke, “Uh…demolish the monarchy. End the caste system. Free the Alpha Primitives. That kinda thing. Ahura and I have both spent enough time on earth to figure out how terrible a lot of stuff we Inhumans do is.” 

“Luna, are you a revolutionist?”

“Ha. Sure.” 

— 

Franklin wondered if the Wizard had forgotten them. He hadn’t sent in any Happy Meal’s like Luna had gotten. Franklin was starting to feel starving. 

In the silence, Luna spoke. “If we do die here… well I’m glad you’re with me. I wouldn’t want to die alone. I am so often alone on Attilan, so it’s nice to have some company here.”

Franklin could remember a time when he and Luna had played together as children. He had always considered her a good friend whether they were near or far from each other. And he also felt isolated and lonely more often than he would like. But not with her. “I’m glad you’re here too.” 

— 

The sun had set again when a sizzling noise came from behind the door. Luna and Franklin froze, as Franklin was crowning Luna’s king in what he was quite certain was their forty-fifth game of checkers. 

They jumped up, Luna shoving the now forgotten game of checkers into her jacket. Franklin balled his fists, both of them preparing for a fight if necessary. And then came the glorious noise of the lock popping open and Franklin had never been gladder to see his sister in his life.

Valeria gave a grin, lifting her goggles from her eyes. Behind her, Bentley-23 stood, his arms crossed, a blowtorch in hand. 

“Hey, Frank.” Val said, and glanced at Luna. “Luna Maximoff?”

“Valeria!” Luna rushed forward and gave Val a quick hug, which took Val off guard but she reciprocated. Luna turned to give Bentley a hug too, but he scowled at the prospect and she just put a hand on his shoulder with a thank you 

“Anyway,” Val said, shutting the door once Franklin entered the hall, “The Wizard will figure out we’re gone in about five minutes —”

“Four minutes and 37 seconds.” Bentley corrected.

“Yeah. So we better get going. C’mon.” She began tapping a silver tablet she was holding, bringing what looked like a map.  “I got the building layout here.”

She turned to Bentley, “Did you access the security cameras yet?” 

Bentley tapped the side of his yellow-tinted glasses. “Yup. We have guards coming in multiple directions. Let’s go.”

They ran through the facility’s hall, making sharp turns when Valeria told them and turning around when Bentley informed them that there were AIM agents coming that way. Bentley and Val worked wonderfully as a team, whether the two of them would ever admit it or not.

They had one close call when a lone AIM agent bumped into them bounding around a corner, but before they could panic and he could call more agents, Luna grabbed the man’s head between her hands. A golden flash emitted from her eyes as she overpowered the man’s brain with emotion.

The agent collapsed onto the ground and let out a snore. 

“Whoa…” Franklin said.

Luna shrugged, pulling her jacket, which had slipped down her shoulder, back up. “Powers are back on.” 

The alarms began blaring through the halls, ringing in sync with the groups’ beating hearts. But they had had too much of a head start to worry.

“Hey, Val,” Franklin said between breaths. “Where were they keeping you two?”

“Wizard wanted us to build some death ray to kill mom and dad and Quicksilver with.”

“Oh. Did you?”

“Nah.” Val said.

“Sabotage,” Bentley offered.

And blood pumping with adrenaline, they burst from the facility into the sunlight. It was impossible to tell where they were by the surroundings. They were in a large clearing circled by pine forests. 

But they would worry about that later. 

Val and Bentley turned to the building with confidence, Luna and Franklin breathing heavily behind them. 

“The Wizard has a great lockdown system.” Val said, swiping her finger on the tablet she’d been holding.

“Too good.” Bentley added smugly, removing one of his gloves.

“Now,” Val continued. “The lockdown is unable to be counter-commanded for 24 hours, even by the Wizard, and can only be commanded by the Wizard. It’s put in place mainly for the need of a quarantine due to manufactured viruses getting out.”

“Unfortunately, dear old dad forgot we have the same fingerprints.” Bentley pushed his thumb down onto the tablet, approving Valeria’s lockdown command. 

A metal door slammed down over where they had exited and two warning lights above it began flashing red.

“Wow.” Luna said after a second. “Good job, guys.” 

“Thanks,” Val smiled at her. “Now we just need to hope mom and dad get here before 24 hours are up.”

Franklin nodded, looking up for any sign of the Fantasticar. “Do you know if our trackers are still active?”

“Yeah. I think they were cut off while we were in the building, but they should be functional now.” Val explained. 

“Good.” 

They stood in the clearing, inhaling the fresh forest air and listening to the sound of birds singing around them. 

“It’s a nice spot for an evil facility actually.” Luna said. 

Bentley frowned. “I think it’s ugly.”

Luna let out a laugh. “Oh, I missed you guys! Wanna play checkers and cards until they find us?”

— 

Beside Franklin and Luna, Bentley triumphantly jumped two of Val’s checker pieces. 

Sitting cross-legged, Luna exhaled slowly.  “I just hope this doesn’t mess things up too badly.”

“What do you mean?” Franklin watched her hands as she dealt out his cards for another round.

“Oh, well do you remember around the time that you guys left for space?” Franklin nodded as she continued. “I was all set and ready to go to Braddock Academy in England, but then there was a whole thing that happened there and a bunch of the students got brutally murdered, so my mom pulled me back out again. And I’ve only just now convinced her to send me in the fall again.”

Luna pushed his pile of cards towards him and Franklin scooped them up. “Oh, cool.”

“I just hope me getting kidnapped while visiting Dad won’t set her off again. Hopefully the fact that we handled it on our own will make up for it.” 

Franklin glanced up and their blue eyes met. “Well I can vouch for you. I mean, you can obviously handle yourself. You knocked that guy out pretty easy.”

Luna gave a grateful smile. “Well I won’t say no to that.”

— 

Pietro Maximoff found them first, a silver blur between the trees. He was overjoyed to find Luna and Luna was equally ecstatic to see him. She ran into his arms, and they held each other tightly. He pushed her back after a moment, looking her over, to make sure she was okay. 

Franklin wished his father would look like that when he found him, but he knew he wouldn’t. He might look like that at Val, but not him. 

The Fantastic Four and Luna’s mother arrived on the horizon a few moments later in the Fantasticar. Sue was visibly relieved, and gave Val, Franklin and even Bentley tight hugs. Reed gave them all pats on the shoulders, saying that he was proud of them for escaping themselves. 

Uncle Johnny seemed more amazed than Reed though. 

“So, you just played checkers and sat here with a building full of supervillains, just waiting for us to get here?” 

Val smiled proudly, “Yup!” 

“Ha! I told you they’d be alright, Sue!” 

Things were not handled as graciously with Luna’s family. 

Crystal had only just made certain Luna was alright before she turned to Pietro with a sharp frown. 

“Pietro, how could you let this happen? I put Luna under your care and—”

Luna grabbed her mother’s arm, pleadingly, “Mom, please! It wasn’t his fault! I was alone in my room! He had no way of knowing that I was gone until hours later!” 

There was a silence between the three of them. Franklin cleared his throat. “Uh, not that it was much of a problem. I mean, Luna can handle herself pretty well.” 

Crystal stared at him, then to Pietro, and then finally to Luna. She gave a defeated huff. 

Luna softened her grip on Crystal, “I can still stay with Dad, right, Mom? Please?”

Crystal shook her head, and shook Luna off her, “Yes, yes. Let’s just get out of here.”

She turned away and Pietro and Luna smiled at each other before Luna turned to thank Franklin.

— 

After an invite to dinner at the Baxter Building, Luna shuffled into the Fantasticar with the rest of the FF. Even Pietro was content to not run if it meant sitting with his daughter. 

Before they took off, Luna glanced at Franklin. “I have to say though. You do look better blond. The dark makes you look kinda pale. Now I can tell it wasn’t just the light in the cell.” 

Franklin scoffed, “Hey, if you get to have pink hair for two years (which I totally want to see the pictures from), then I get to have dark hair for as long as I want.”

Luna shrugged in her seat, “At least I looked good.”

Franklin resisted the urge to elbow Luna as Valeria let out a loud laugh and the adults gave amused smiles. 

He felt a happiness in his chest, almost as if the weight of loneliness he carried with him was being lifted. He looked at Luna. The same feeling was emanating off her like light from the sun. It was warm. 

Luna caught his eye. She felt it too. They were going to be friends.

the fact that Luna Maximoff was literally born before Billy and Tommy but bc of the retro-reincarnation* the twins are full grown adults and Luna is still a middle-schooler.

*nobody in the mid-2000s was playing close enough attention to the timeline, also because Luna is the Franklin Richards of Atillan and will never age.

quick thing of luna maximoff 🌛🔮🧠🔮🌜

Thinking about YA girls friendship. For spring break, the girls take Luna on a tropical island getaway (and to take a break from the city). They take her shopping, surfing, zip lining, and more so she gets to experience having fun. They even come across Rachel Summers-Grey who is also on spring break.

Ahh yes! Also, Luna canonically loves the ocean after growing up on the Moon and she would enjoy that so much.

Honestly, though, my ultimate crossover would be all the legacy characters/children of older heroes coming together. A lot of them have so much in common and it would just be fun to see!

Fantastic Four vs X-Men (1987) #3, published April 1987

Franklin making a Captain America oc that's a girl because his mom is the most outstanding example of a superhero to him is the sweetest thing.

forgot to mention that I’m annoyed by Franklin’s hair now being permanently black... I think it’s just stupid. “It’s just how I feel, mom, I’m an emo now and forever.” But more than that it took away a core part of his character design and I don’t like it personally. It think it would have been fun to see him stop dying it at some point as a character development thing, but again nooo

So I just read Fantastic Four (2018) #45. And wow. I was already ready to be disappointed, but it just sucks so bad.

First, the whole Reckoning War storyline was terrible (which I was expecting it to be since it’s Dan Slott). Especially for what it did to Reed. Reed was just allowing himself to act like a terrible human being since he thought he was going to die. He did and said terrible things. And now that’s all just going to be swept under the rug and ignored? Like is Reed going to face no consequences for his actions? But more than that I’m so tried of Reed being written like a terrible human being. Yes, Reed has a hard time with empathy and emotions sometimes, but that doesn’t mean he’s a literal sociopath. There are ways to write Reed that have him still come off as a likeable character. See Jonathan Hickman’s FF run. (My favourite run.) I feel like Reed hasn’t been himself for years and it just makes me so sad.

Second, the whole thing with Johnny’s increased powers is so annoying and I’m tired of it. I mean, Johnny has not been written well for a while and this has just turned him into a whiny hothead. (Which he sometimes is, but that’s ignoring all the character growth he’s had over the years.) And now he’s gone off to live with Sky… *long sigh* I never really liked her as a girlfriend to Johnny. She’s a fine character on her own, but I really hope they don’t get back together…

Third, the thing that is making me the most annoyed. Franklin. I had hopes for Franklin. I did. But now it looks like his powers have returned. And there was basically no point to taking them away because he has learned no lesson from losing them. I have said in previous posts that I hoped that Franklin would learn that even without his powers he can live his life and be a hero, but if he has really gotten them back, there has been no development. Franklin has continually been in the same grumpy mindset of “I used to be a god” and nothing has changed. I wanted them to commit to his powers being gone and have him learn other ways to help the FF. But no. Because we can’t have nice things. And now Franklin is still a bratty kid with a God complex that he never used to have. And he’s still not a mutant again (which is a whole other post).

In conclusion, I am tried. T I R E D 

Ahura Boltagon and Misidentified Child-Age Psychosis

Schizophrenic psychosis in childhood is extremely rare.  It’s not unheard of, but is highly uncommon.  Children can demonstrate psychotic features, but more often than not these symptoms are the result of other factors.  Psychological trauma, clinically significant troubles with anxiety and/or depression, and even the natural organic development of the brain can bring about transitory states that look like schizophrenia.  And yet properly distinguishing such features from true psychosis is crucial in that it informs treatment approaches.  Prescribing neuroleptic antipsychotic medications to child-aged patients can have the affect of quelling the overt aspects of the difficulty while further compounding the root cause. 

I had a patient during my training who had been diagnosed as child-onset schizophrenic.  He was allegedly hearing voices and demonstrating highly destructive acting-out behavior.  At the time of this initial diagnosis, however, he had just been removed from his biological parents due to physical abuse and placed in foster care.  He was prescribed a high dose of the medication, Aripiprazole (a newer generation neuroleptic often used in the treatment of schizophrenia and Bipolar 1 Disorder).  This left him in an almost zombie-like state. 

Fortunately, shortly after I began working with this little guy I was able to get him reevaluated by a new psychiatrist who opted to discontinue the antipsychotic medication.  This led to a return of the acting out behaviors, but also left him cognizant enough to participate in psychotherapy and learn new, more effective coping skills.  The ‘voices’ never returned and the acting-out soon abated.  Through out work together, he was able to better work through his anger, sadness, and anxiety over the abuse he had endured and the trauma of being removed from his birthparents - progress we would have never been able to achieve were he still on the Aripiprazole. 

Anyways, all this has a lot to do with why I am such a fan of the character of Ahura Boltagon.  He has been just a terrific representation of the complexities of childhood psychopathology.  As a mere toddler, Ahura was misidentified as mad, and this ‘madness’ coupled with the nature of his powers made him a threat to those around him. 

At first he was sent into foster care with a kindly family of farmers (as seen in Daredevil #s 279-283 by Nocenti and Romita Jr).  This didn’t work out so well in that his symptoms were mistaken for demonic possession.  Ahura was ultimately returned to Attilan and handed over to the Pacifiers.  These mystical pacifiers were able to suppress Ahura’s powers (and psychopathology) but at the cost of rendering him into a zombie-like state.  This was shown in Hine and Irving’s terrific mini-series, ‘Silent War.’  There is a haunting scene in the series where Medusa goes to visit her son in the care of the pacifiers.  Ahura is all but catatonic and barely recognizes his own mother.  The scene was especially striking to me in that it so reminded me of the first time I had met the patient mentioned above. 

Thanks to Medusa and Maximus’ intervention, Ahura was eventually removed from the Pacifiers and returned to his mother’s side.  This was shown in Fraction, Allred and Quinone’s current run on FF.  Ahura continues to have difficulties with behavioral acting out (he released Maximus from his prison and has caused all sorts of trouble in the Baxter Building), but the psychotic features have yet to return.  In hindsight, it seems obvious that Ahura’s so-called madness was merely the result of normal cerebral development, an adjustment to his super-human powers, and the traumatic stress of being removed from his parents. 

The anti-psychotic meddling of the pacifiers only acted to quell and suppress the symptoms of Ahura’s difficulties, while leaving the root cause unaddressed; and it is only now that he has been taken off of psychotropic medication that his true recovery is being facilitated. 

Fabian Cortez just wants to be ANYONE'S nemesis and NOBODY wants him and it is the FUNNIEST thing and it will be funny until THE DAY I DIE. He's ridiculous and I love him.

Quicksilver when picking a nemesis:

After reading the "Layla Miller is Luna Maximoff" stuff I went and looked at her Wiki article to re-familiarize myself with the character and found this bit: "During the Superhero Civil War, Quicksilver makes repeated attempts to enter X-Factor Investigations Headquarters. Each time, he is thwarted by Layla, whom Quicksilver comes to consider his nemesis." FABIAN IS SCREAMING! PIETRO ACKNOWLEDGES THE *TEEN GIRL* AS HIS NEMESIS BUT NOT HIM?! THE OUTRAGE!! XD

Yes, but she *might* be his magically-created substitute daughter from an alternate reality, so accepting her as his nemesis is a really Magneto-like thing  for Pietro to do. Cortez should be thrilled! Finally, Quicksilver is on the path to true love villainy. He’ll probably need a scheming advisor for that, right? Perhaps some dashing fellow with fabulous hair and a cape? :D

My favs