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Chapter 1
Max, a tall and brawny teenager, introduces a boy named Kevin, one of the kids from his daycare who has a birth defect. -
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The Adventures of Freak the Mighty
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Chapter 2
Max discovers that Kevin, or "Freak" has moved into his neighborhood. He gets spooked by Freak's sudden outburst, in which Freak pretends to be a robot. -
Chapter 3
Freak gets his ornithopter stuck in a tree, so Max decides to help get the "bird robot" out of the branches. Freak wants to see where Max lives, so Max tows him over in a wagon. -
Chapter 4
When Freak and Max arrive in the Down Under, Max's little area in the basement, Freak explains why he calls his mom, Gwen, "The Fair Guinevere". We (the readers and Max) learn that Freak is currently obsessed with fairytales and fantasy, as Guinevere is from the tale of King Arthur. When Gwen comes to retrieve Freak, she is seemingly scared when she sees Max. -
Chapter 5
Gwen calls Max's caretakers, Grim and Gram, to tell them she was sorry about her reaction when she saw Max. She had invited them to dinner to apologize. At the dinner, Gwen reveals that she was so scared because Max was the spitting image of his father. It doesn't seem like a logical excuse, until you realize his father is in jail. After a bit of awkwardness about Max's father, the group of people end up having a fun time. Max goes home and cries, but he isn't sad. He is crying out of happiness. -
Chapter 6
During the Fourth of July, Max and Freak encounter "Blade" and hig gang. This gang is bad news, but Freak doesn't know that quite yet. He calls Blade a cretin, otherwise known as a person who suffers from a mental deficiency." Fortunately, the cops intervene before they can get hurt. After the encounter, Max puts Freak on his shoulders to see the fireworks, and the latter calls out the names of elements in the explosions. What a smart kid. -
Chapter 7
After the fireworks end, Freak notices Blade and his gang are following the duo and starts to steer Max in the other direction. They end up running into a nasty pond to evade the group, but it is no use. Just as they are about to be pummeled by Blade and his gang, Freak whistles loudly and alerts the police, efficiently getting them out of danger. -
Chapter 8
After the incident with Blade, Max is worried he will get in trouble. However, he is not in trouble at all. In fact, his whole summer seems to take a turn for the better! -
Chapter 9
Freak brings Max on a bold adventure, but this one is different from the others. When they arrive, they are at a medical research building, and Freak tells Max that he will become the first ever human robot. -
Chapter 10
When Freak shows up with another Quest, Max doesn't know what to expect from Freak this time. Freak leads the duo to the sewers, where they find a woman's purse. Apparently, Blade had stuffed it down there. Tomorrow, they decided, they would return the purse. -
Chapter 11
When Freak and Max arrive at the woman's house, they encounter a rude and sassy woman named Loretta Lee and her husband, Iggy. After a little while, Loretta and Iggy realize that Max is the son of "Killer Kane", and Loretta tries to invite the odd duo in. But Iggy refuses and boots them out of the house. -
Chapter 12
School starts soon after the visit to the Lee's, and Max absolutely hates that fact. When they do get to school, Max is tormented by his peers. Luckily, Freak is there to help! He climbs on Max's back and presents the duo as "Freak the Mighty", riling up the class. They get sent to the principal's office, but Freak sweet-talks the duo out of trouble. -
Chapter 13
On Friday the Thirteenth, very bad things happen to both Max and Freak. Freak ends up choking on Chop Suey, but Max's dilema is far worse. When Max gets a note telling him to go to the office, he is told that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named (Killer Kane) has gone on parole. Max throws a major tantrum and causes injury to someone. -
Chapter 14
After Max meets Freak at the hospital, he returns home to find Gram and Grim fighting over whether they should hold a gun in case Kenny Kane returns for Max. But Grim only gets a restraining order against Kenny. -
Chapter 15
During Christmas, everything seems to be going smoothly. Max chooses to open his present from Freak as an early gift, and he receives a complex contraption-like box with a handmade dictionary inside. Max goes to bed happy, but that happiness vanishes when he wakes up in the middle of the night with a strong hand holding him down. It's his father. -
Chapter 16
Kenny tells Max he is going to take him away from his grandparents. Kenny says that he never killed anyone, and brings Max with him to Loretta and Iggy's house. When they arrive, Iggy is extremely nervous and Loretta is extremely drunk. They are both scared of Max's dad. -
Chapter 17
After Iggy takes Kenny and Max to an empty house, Kenny lays down some "ground rules". The first rule is that Max has to stop acting dumb, even though he can't help it. What a jerk. He then ties up Max so he can't escape while he is asleep.
Again, what a jerk.
When Kenny starts telling his sad tale of how he was "framed", he begins to cry. But even Max knows that the tears are fake. He knows what really happened to his mom. He knows how she died. -
Chapter 18
Kenny tries to convince Max to help him with his "plan". The "plan" is to con religious people out of their money. But just before Max can say anything, police lights are flashing outside. Kenny turns on Iggy, thinking that he alerted the police, but it was actually Freak. -
Chapter 19
Kenny abducts Max and hides the both of them in the basement of a burned building. Kenny shoves a piece of cloth in the boy's mouth, then leaves Max tied up on the floor. After a few minutes, Loretta comes down to free him. But just as he is untied, Kenny starts to strangle her. -
Chapter 20
Max screams at Kenny to try and make him stop choking Loretta, but he doesn't listen. Max suddenly throws himself between the two adults and starts to tell the story of how Kenny killed his mother, explaining every detail. He then turns on poor Max, choking him instead. But when all hope seems lost, Freak steps in and attacks Kenny with "Sulfuric Acid", which is actually a mixture of household liquids. The police arrest Killer Kane again, and Freak the mighty part ways again. -
Chapter 21
After Max is rescued, he has to tell the story of what happened over and over and over, which does not help the state of his mentality. When he finally returns home, Gram and Grim say he should sleep upstairs, just in case. Nothing seems to be going right today. -
Chapter 22
It's springtime, and Freak's birthday party is just around the bend. Before the party, Freak explains imagination to Max, who doesn't understand at all. But this sticks with Max for the rest of his life. At the party, Freak gets anything he could ever want, As Max helps with dishes after the party, he hears a cry from Grim and rushes into the room. Freak is having a seizure. They call an ambulance to bring Freak to the hospital. -
Chapter 23
When Max sees Freak again, he is tied up to multiple wires and tubes. As Freak speaks with Max, he gives the taller boy a book. But the book is completely empty. Freak tells Max to write down all their adventures, because he might not be able to when he adjusts to his new "robot body". He then erupts in a coughing fit and Max is herded out. -
Chapter 24
The next day, Max bolts to the hospital, anxious to see Freak again. But when he arrives, something seems wrong. All the nurses are crying and looking at Max with big, mournful eyes. He realizes what this means and sprints to Freak's room as fast as he can. Security keeps him still after they grab him, and the doctor explains that Freak knew he wasn't going to live very long. She tells Max that Freak's heart got too big for his body, and Max looses his ability to cope. -
Chapter 25
After Freak's death, he chose not to go to the funeral. A year passes, and he sees Loretta again. She asks him what he has been doing nowadays, and he just replies with "Nothing."
She tells him that "Nothing is a drag."
He finally faces his sadness and writes his book, just like he told Freak he would.
