Max had strolled into his and Lil's new apartment complex just a little after seven, having finally been released from evening classes. The later ones went until nine, but none of them fulfilled the requirements for his major, so instead he was stuck trying to stay awake through dull lectures through the semi-daylight hours. Once he'd hopped on the bus back to Pax, though, the sun was setting and he was already starting to feel a little more awake - by the time he'd gotten home, he felt energized, as he always had once nighttime rolled in. He'd warily boarded the elevator and gone up to the sixth floor, letting himself in with his own key, and plopped his backpack down on the first available surface (which was the couch, and leaving it there would undoubtedly antagonize Lil later on if he chose to leave it there); he grabbed a snack from the kitchen (a pack of twizzlers he'd managed to hide from Lil's nutritionist eyes) and then headed to his bedroom to boot up Gears of War 2.
He'd been happily playing it for a little less than two hours when suddenly everything went dead. The lights, the screen, his playstation - buttons were pressed in rapid succession, wires checked, outlets observed, but everything seemed all right from first appearances; whether there would be any leftover damage from electrical overcharge couldn't be discovered until he regained a source of power. Max's next move was to test the room's light switch, which gave him a similar answer as his gaming machine. Picking up a toy light saber, he flicked it open with a twitch of his wrist and started to explore the apartment with its green illumination. He finally came to the satisfying conclusion that the power was completely out, and for a moment wondered if his numerous consoles and over-rigged PC had blown a circuit. He'd been just about to go and check on Lilian when a knock at the door provided him with a few more answers. It was the concierge, explaining that there was some kind of massive power failure in both the regular and the backup. He and Lil would have to head down to the lobby, just for their own safety.
Continuing to use the light saber to its fullest ability, Max moved slowly back through the apartment and to Lil's room, finding his sister dead to the world and tucked deeply into the covers of her bed. A hand to her shoulder did nothing, as he assumed, and he started in on his chant that he'd done even as a child to rouse his sister from her deep slumber, combining it with the shaking. "Lil Lil Lil Lil Lil Lil Lil Lil..."