Max finds out that people are moving into the house next door. The new neighbors turn out to be Freak and his mother Gwen, who Freak calls "The Fair Gwen" after King Arthur's wife. The boys make friends. They go to the Fourth of July fireworks together, and puts Freak on his shoulders so he can see. The local tough guy, Tony D. "Blade", chases the two with his gang because Freak called him a cretin. With Max's size and speed and Freak's directions and master plan of running into the pond, they keep themselves safe until they are rescued by the police. After this incident, Freak starts riding on Max's shoulders. They call their combined form "Freak the Mighty". The friendship is good for them both; they stick up for each other and Kevin even teaches Max to read and learn properly. They go on adventures such as going to the hospital which Freak claims has a secret department called the "Bionics Department" which has had his brain cat scanned to be fitted into an artificial body. On one adventure they find a woman's purse in the sewer. They return it to the woman who is called Loretta Lee. Loretta is the wife of Iggy Lee, boss of the Panheads, a motorcycle gang who "struck fear in everyone, even the cops", as Max puts it. She loved to eat weird things like cowpie and a lot of disgusting things because that's how her gang was. Iggy says that the two of them once knew Max's father. They want to "have some fun" with the boys but change their minds because they are afraid that Max's father will get angry. They are afraid of Max's father even though he's serving a life sentence. They also reveal that Kevin's father left once he heard his son had a birth defect.