Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

16 years ago
Deep in an underground lab turned hospital, a human woman was giving birth.
She had been pregnant six times over the years. Each one named. Each one loved. They’re ultrasound photos were carefully preserved in a shoebox at the bottom of their closet.
None had survived. Each embryo, despite the promise they’d shown, the heartbeats Molly had heard over the ultrasound, had broken apart under the pressure of fused human and alien genetics, their cells collapsing under what they were never meant to carry.
Each time, her brother had promised they’d fix it. Better sequencing, better protocols. They were learning. Evolving. They’d get it right.
Molly and Jim would have their baby, they just had to wait a little longer.
Each time, they’d failed.
But this one, this pregnancy, had lasted. Thirteen months. A painful, exhausting marathon of medical intervention, quiet dread, and stolen moments of hope. Thirteen months of Molly daring herself to believe she might actually meet one of her children.
Revolving doctors and tests, always more tests, as Molly was pumped with medication after medication. Anything to carry to term.
Because the baby inside her wasn’t fully human. Not entirely. Her husband, an alien for a planet that no longer existed, but grounded by years spent on Earth, stood at her side, keeping his hand in her bone crushing grip. Never flinching.
And the baby, Max, had shown to be human in every scan. No trace of his father’s DNA on paper. Outside of the impossibly long pregnancy, their baby was simply human. Simply theirs.
They had waited so long to meet him. To take him home. To take any of their children home.
Then, finally, after hours of pain and panic, the moment came.
The doctor leaned in. “It’s time. One more push.”
Molly braced, nodded. “Okay.”
They were ready.
Except-
She screamed, and the world went dark.
The lights overhead flickered violently, then burst, glass raining down. Machinery seized. Sparks spat from overhead vents. An unnatural hum vibrated the very air, growing sharper, louder- until the EKG shrieked and flatlined.
Suddenly the room is drowned in a sea of deep blue. Covering every surface and wall. Clinging to skin and clothes alike, before receding back into Molly. Into the baby.
The temperature in the room dropped. The floor trembled.
Steel drawers popped open. Monitors cracked down the center. A nurse yelled, shielding her face from flying debris.
Then everything died. Power. Light. Silence.
And in the flickering emergency glow, the newborn wailed.
But his cry wasn’t quite… right. There was something high and sharp buried in the sound, like interference on a radio signal. A frequency that buzzed behind the ears.
One of the N-Tek techs gasped. “There was a surge. Takion… but it’s gone now. Readings are zeroed out.”
Before Molly could even reach for him, the doors hissed open and Forge entered with a containment team. Taking the child into their hands before his mother got the chance to hold him even once.
“No-no, give him back!” Molly cried, weak and bloodied, she reached with shaking hands for the only baby that made it.
Her husband holds her back. “We have to be sure, my love.”
“We need to assess him,” Forge said. “There could be instability in his cellular structure. You saw what just happened.”
“You don’t get to take him from me!” she screamed.
But the doors shut between them. Her brother and child disappearing behind it.
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Time blurred after that.
No one would answer her questions. The machines stayed dead. And Molly sat in the dim, shaking, bleeding, with empty arms.
Jim stayed with her, the calm in the center of the storm.
When Forge finally returned, his expression was carefully neutral. Too neutral to be anything but a front.
Molly was too drained to notice.
“He’s stable,” he said.
Molly looked up, hollow eyed. “What was that?”
“A spontaneous energy discharge. Massive. Short-lived. There’s… no residual Takion energy left in his system.” He paused. “None detectable. At all.”
Jim narrowed his eyes. “So, what? He just… sparked like a damn generator and now he’s just human?”
Forge didn’t flinch. “We believe it was a single event, possibly triggered by birth trauma, or a rare reaction to the hybrid gestation. Maybe even residual energy he absorbed from you. The important thing is, his vitals are normal. No ongoing energy signatures. No anomalies we can find. He’s functionally human.”
Molly stared at him. “Are you sure?”
Forge hesitated just a breath too long.
“Yes,” He said. “As far as the instruments show, he’s just a baby.”
And then Max was returned to her, small and pink and warm in her arms.
No glow. No hum. Just soft breath and tiny fingers.
Molly’s one and only living child.
He looked up at her with wide, unfocused eyes. Eyes like his father’s. His mouth opened in a yawn and he curled against her like any other newborn, unaware of the world he’d shaken apart just by being born.
Jim wrapped an arm around them both.
“He made it,” He whispered.
“He’s ours,” Molly said. “And he’s okay.”
And in that moment, that was all that mattered.
But Forge lingered just outside the room, looking down at the last energy spike on a dead monitor.
A reading that had no source. No precedent.
And, according to every scan they’d run since… No explanation.
Forge looked at the happy couple and resolved to keep an… eye on the situation.
They’d have to prepare for anything that could develop as the child grows. Energy wise or simply any health risks that could occur as a result of the mixed genetics.
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Present Day

In space, sound couldn't carry. But from inside the spaceship, it was blaringly loud.

But, this was partially because everyone was yelling.

"On your right!" Berto yelled through the comms.

"Yes, thank you Berto, I can see it!" Cat snapped.

"Oh come on, Cat, you're just mad because if you don't bag this one, I'll win!" Jefferson shot back.

"In your dreams Jefferson, I'm winning that steakhouse dinner!" Cat was noticeably less on edge now. They weren't done yet.

"THI ships coming up behind you." Berto informed them.

Fuck, they thought they would have more time.

"You cover me, while I grab the ultralink?" Jefferson suggested.

Cat snorted, "And give you the easy win? I don't think so!" Even as she said that, she was already turning around.

It was no longer the time for their friendly rivalry. She would win that dinner another time.

Neither Cat nor Jefferson knew why THI wanted the ultralink, but they knew Ferris, and if he was this adamant about them not getting it, then they needed to do everything in their power to prevent that.

Even if they didn't know why Ferris wanted the ultralink either.

"Almost got it! Get the sandwiches ready, Berto!" Jefferson was practically giddy at the thought of the buffet awaiting him.

Cat was glad most of the enemy ships were run by AI's or remotely controlled, so she didn't have to feel bad for blowing them up. She could almost pretend it was an arcade game like this.

"Almost, almost, almost, almost, GOT IT! Whoo!" Cat winced at the yelling in her ear. But it was also a relief. It meant they could go home now, to the new base in Copper Canyon.

The partners threw out a smoke screen, to cover their quick retreat, and safely reenter the Earth's atmosphere.

It took a few hours, but they finally got to N-Tech base. Cat decided that Jefferson could handle putting the ultralink in containment. She was going to take a shower

Jefferson slowly got out of his ship, and stretched his arms over his head. He was tired. And hungry. But mostly hungry.

Itching to get to his sandwiches, he quickly, but carefully unloaded the ultralink, and carted it over to containment. Safe and sound, with all the others.

That taken care of, he excitedly made his way to the cafeteria lounge.

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The scientists watching the ultralinks spent quite a lot of time chatting. There wasn't much else to do, as it was a rather boring post.

None of the ultralinks had ever woken up, and none of them were likely to.

So they chatted, gossiped. Didn't ask too many questions. But the rookies always had to get the same speech before they really understood the questions part.

"What's with the ultralink in the case?" Said rookie asked. "Why isn't it in containment with the rest?"

The veteran sighed. The same song and dance as always. "This one was different."

"Different? How so?"

"Used to be friends with the founders."

"But it's a hunk of metal! How could anyone be friends with that? Was it even capable of being friends?" The rookie just couldn't wrap his head around it.

"Of course, these creatures are incredibly intelligent, but rarely act on their own. This one did, and he died for it."

"Died?"

"No more questions. Besides, it's nothing more than scrap at this point. Don't let the superiors hear you ask about it." The tone carried an edge of warning.

The situation was weird, and the rookie wanted to know more, but it was probably for the best that he didn't. Besides, he wouldn't have gotten this far if he didn't understand the value of minding his own business.

Unbeknownst to the two scientists, as they walked away, the lone ultralink shifted for the first time in 15 years.

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Max didn't want to move again. And really, could you blame him? 13 moves in 16 years. It was crazy.

It'd probably be easier if he knew why they were actually moving, but no one would tell him.

His mom always said that it was to slowly travel the country, to get enough time to really explore the area before moving on. It was a good excuse, and Max had believed it until he was 10. Before he really picked up on just how strange it was.

There was no rhyme, or reason for their moves. Traveling the country did not explain why sometimes they'd pack up, and leave in the middle of the night. Why every move had Max's mom laced with anxiety. The need to leave as soon as possible. The constant looking over their shoulders.

It just didn't make any sense. It was like they were being chased, running from an ever present stalker that never gave up.

And now they were moving again. To the desert this time. Max didn't like the heat. It gave him bad migraines, always had, so it struck him as a weird place to go. How could he go to school while dealing with that? How could he be ready to move in a hurry, with the haze the heat will put him in?

Max, when he was little, had liked to joke that he was cursed with gravity just being all that stronger for him, and him alone.

His headaches were always pressure, feeling like his head was trying to cave in on itself.

And then there was the pain. Starting, always starting, in the base of his skull, down to the nape of his neck and curling around his shoulder blades. It was like the air itself was pushing and pushing, trying to make him bend or break.

It was a tightness in his hip, his arms and legs feeling just a bit too long on his body. Fingers and toes ached and ached, and Max didn’t even remember when he’d started cracking them to relieve the pressure.

All of this culminating into an amalgamation of supposedly unrelated symptoms, where they’d never been in one place long enough to get it properly checked out.

Max didn’t think Molly wanted to get it checked out.

Max had to assume his mom had a plan, he thought as he struggled getting the last box out of the house. It was heavy, and awkward, and Max couldn't see over the top.

The box collapsing in on itself was really only a matter of time. Well, at least Max made it down the steps before it gave out.

"It really just needs to be the stuff we need." Molly, Max's mom said. "Besides, every single weight in one box, Max?" She had a tight smile on her face.

Molly looked tired. Drained. It's the only thing that stopped Max from complaining.

He didn't know why they were moving, but Molly seemed to dread it as much as he did.

Only the stuff they need, huh?

Max left the box as is for now. The movers could take care of it, with the rest of what they were leaving behind. Then he made his way over to the truck, and beckoned over some of the neighborhood kids he'd babysat before.

"Take your pick, we have some action figures, plushies, a game boy- ouch!"

The Gameboy was on the fritz! The screen was flashing, and it zapped Max, hard, before going completely dead. He instinctively dropped the broken console, and it smashed into pieces.

Everyone just stared at it in shock.

"I guess they don't make these like they used to." Max laughed it off. At least, outwardly so. He was puzzled though. He could have sworn that, for just a second, it glowed with a blue light.

Probably just his imagination. The stress, or lack of sleep is causing it. Whatever, it probably wasn't a big deal.

Max ignored the nagging voice in the back of his head saying this wasn’t the first time it had happened.

"Woah! Is that you?" One of the kids had picked up an old photo of a similar looking man, with his arms wrapped around Molly.

"No," Max said, taking the picture, "that's my dad. He, uh, he isn't around anymore."

The kids all nodded. They were young, but they weren't stupid. They knew what that meant. They just didn't know what to do about it.

Just then, his mom came up behind him, engulfing him in a side hug, as she smoothly grabbed the picture from him. "You look more like him everyday." She smiled sadly.

Molly sighed, and put the picture face down in a box, closing it. Max tamped down the urge to snatch it back. To hold it up against the mirror, and compare their likenesses, and differences. To try and figure out his personality from his facial expressions.

It wasn't much, but it was all he had to go off of. Max had the selfish thought of wishing his mom would actually tell him about his father, but he saw how painful even the mention was for her. He still remembered her face the first, and only time he’d pressed for information.

Still, it'd be nice to have any idea at all as to what he was like.

"Max!" Molly called from inside the car, "it's time to hit the road!" The edge in her voice said that stalling was not an option. It was time to say goodbye to the kids.

"Be good! Don't do anything I wouldn't do! Bye, kids." Max gave a warm smile, and fist bumped them, to a chorus of goodbyes.

His smile, while genuine, dropped the moment Max turned away.

He grabbed his travel backpack, took one last look at the house, and the neighborhood, and got into the truck.

"You ready for another journey together?" Molly asked him, once he'd settled into his seat.

No. Max thought. "Of course." He said out loud.

Molly gave him a look that said she knew he was lying, but that she appreciated the effort. That he was trying to stay positive.

"You pick the music?" It was a piece offering. It was definitely Molly's turn. But well, it wasn't like Max was going to say no.

"What about a podcast?"

"Sounds good!"

And with that, they were off. Even if it wasn't where Max wanted to go, he hoped they wouldn't have to move anytime soon.

He was tired.

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As they pulled out, a man stepped out from inside a neighboring house to watch them go.

He pulled out some sort of walkie talkie, "They're on the move, head out!" He ordered.

The McGrath's would be followed, and monitored all the way to Copper Canyon.

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Halfway across the country, in Copper Canyon, a cyborg was reviewing the sales for the month. Sometimes, he was more invested in the shell company, then what they were actually doing.

Jason Naught heard a beeping sound that signaled the real boss was calling for him. He reached under his desk for the switch that only worked for him, to take him down into the secret meeting room.

"What happened?" The boss asked.

"I can proudly report that stocks are up 9%!" Jason was smug that his expert marketing strategies were working.

His boss, on the other hand, was not.

"Not the stocks, you imbecile! The ultralink! What happened with the ultralink?" He sounded more harsh than usual, but Jason thought that was understandable given…

"We… failed. N-Tech beat us to the punch. We don't know how they found out first, but they did." There was nothing Jason could do. The battle was over before it began, and he'd still wasted the resources to try anyway.

"What the fuck are we supposed to do then, Naught? I'm running out of time, which means you are too. If we don't get a fucking ultralink soon, we both go down." The boss's voice was cold. Hard. It was unforgiving.

He spat all that at Jason as if he didn't know. As if he wasn't trying. As if he didn't realize how crucial harvesting an ultralink was.

But he would stay cool, and keep it together. Jason had trained to keep calm in stressful situations, and he would not fail now, just as he never had before.

"I understand the situation, and apologize for the failure. I'll expand the search parameters, and if nothing else, put extra effort into getting plan B finished in time." Jason took a pause to breathe. To center himself again. "Is there anything else you need, sir?"

The boss took a moment to think about it. "No, that is all for now. I'll call you if I need you again, Naught. And remember: if I go down, I will drag you down with me. Understand?" It was hard to tell with the mask, but Jason was sure he was smiling under it.

"I understand sir." The boss waved a hand in dismissal, and Jason took it as the blessing it was, and left to the sound of glass breaking against a wall.

Back in his office, Jason’s good mood was ruined. There was no chance they’d get an ultralink in time, with how little time was left, but plan B was still far from complete. Jason was no prophet, but he could see a lot of sleepless nights in his future.

Jason got up to get some coffee.

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They’d been in the car for hours, and Max had long since run out of the energy required to pretend he was okay with the move. He was hot and stiff, and even with the AC pumped all the way up, he could still feel the heat settling in, and the headache that grew in its wake.

His mom could sense his worsening mood, and handed him some ibuprofen, but said nothing else. Max was fine with that, he didn’t think he could handle an amicable conversation at the moment. He didn’t want to snap at his mom, and right now he didn’t think he could help it.

Molly was doing her best, and Max may not entirely know what that meant, but he knew that above all else, Molly loved him. She was trying to keep him safe from something real, or imagined, and that counted for a lot. He was getting sick of the secrets, but he’d do his best to stick it out as long as possible for her sake.

Besides, he couldn’t shake the feeling lately that it was a very real threat.

He wasn’t sure when things had started feeling different, when his body started feeling wrong, and wired. Things broke in his hands, there was a blue tint when he opened his eyes in the morning. Dreams he can never remember, but spends hours after waking feeling like something was missing.

Max felt guilty for not mentioning it to his mom, but she had enough weight on her shoulders already. That’s what he told himself anyway, and it was still a part of it, but a much bigger part was the innate knowledge whatever was going on with him set him apart. Made him different from others. From his mother.

He was already so sick of being other, he couldn’t bear drawing an even bigger line between them.

To avoid thinking about it anymore, he scrambled for a safe topic, and was relieved when they passed a billboard for Trans Human Industries. He’d never heard his mother express an opinion one way or the other, so he figured it was a fair bet for a mundane, easy conversation.

Max guessed wrong.

“THI really is everywhere, I’m surprised they’re even advertising here.” Max was proud of his attempt.

Or he was, before Molly responded. “Stay away from their products,” she immediately snapped. “Something is going on with them and we will not have any part in it! Understood?” Her tone was so harsh Max was taken aback.

It was several moments before Max was able to respond with a soft, “Understood.”

“Good.” Her tone said what she didn’t. There would be no more discussion about THI. Yet another secret between them.

No more attempts at conversation were made for the rest of the ride.

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Max didn’t feel up to unpacking by the time they arrived in Copper Canyon. He didn’t really feel up to anything. So all he managed was making sure everything he needed for school was out, and as many fans as he could get away with setting up in his room, and went to bed without dinner.

He’d hoped his mom would have mercy on him and let him skip school the next day, so Max could have some time to recover from the trip, and adjust to the heat, but it seemed that he wasn’t that lucky given that he was awoken to pounding on the door bright and early.

“Come on, Max, it’s time to wake up for school! I have to head out, so I need to know you’re up.” Molly was forcing her voice to sound cheerful again. Max was starting to forget what it sounded like when it wasn’t constantly strained.

“I’m up!” He called back, but still sat in bed for another few minutes before getting up.

He left his room to see his mom already dressed and ready to go. Not a hair out of place, clothes pressed and immaculate, with her makeup done almost to perfection, though Max was sure only he could spot the bags in her eyes. Molly clearly hadn’t slept. Again.

“Alright, let’s get moving! We both have big days ahead of us!” Molly’s usual first day speech, back in full force. “Me at work, you at school, new friends, cafeteria food, and tons of homework!”

“Yeah, a regular old paradise on earth.” It was a lackluster response, but he’d need all the energy he could spare for school.

“Alright, well there’s cereal in the cabinet, and coffee in the pot. I’ll see you tonight.” Molly grabbed her bag and headed for the door.

“See you tonight, love you.” Ever since the fear of their situation really set in, Max always made sure to tell his mom he loved her. Without knowing how bad their situation was, he didn’t know how much he should be worried. So he always made sure she knew, just in case.

She didn’t look at him when said, “I love you,” back. Molly just continued out the door.

Max pretended it didn’t bother him. He tried to understand. She was stressed, and tired, and Max looked too much like his father. So it was fine. It’d have to be.

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The lies were building too high, and Molly no longer knew where one stopped, and another started. It felt like her entire life had been one lie after another, and most revolved around her son.

She couldn’t tell him the truth about one, without telling him the truth about them all, and it just wasn’t time for that yet. Though Molly was becoming increasingly unsure about when said time would come.

Was it really that important to hide everything? Even as it tore her apart from the inside out?

Molly felt bad about how distant her relationship with Max was becoming. She had spent so long, and worked so hard to protect him, that somewhere along the line, she stopped seeing him as anything more than an object to protect.

It was easier to pack up and move Max to a new town, new state, if she pretended she couldn’t see the reluctance or the sparks of resentment she knew he would never voice. It was a lot easier to keep on moving without dealing with Max’s feelings, even if she knew it’d have consequences later.

And then the rare times when she did stop and take a few moments to actually look at her son, spend time with him, and watched how he spoke, how he moved, all Molly could think about was how much Max was like his father.

It wasn’t fair to Max, and Molly wasn’t even sure if it was accurate to say he was behaving like his dad, or if her memory was warping with time, if she held on so tightly to the too little time she had with her husband, that the details started slipping through the cracks without her realizing.

The thought scared Molly more than she cared to think about, so she didn’t. She stopped looking at Max, she stopped spending time with him. And it wasn’t fair to him, but this wasn’t fair to her either, and she couldn’t do anything about it while they had to keep moving. There just wasn’t time.

And there certainly wasn’t time to think about it now, on her way to her first day at THI. She wasn’t happy to be working there, and would certainly be having words with her brother over that tonight. But first she had to get through the day.

Molly wasn’t going to seek out any trouble yet, just feel things out, maybe sneak a peek at a few files. It was just her luck that her work overlapped with Jason Naught’s. Ferris really had pulled out all the stops with this one.

She’d just have to keep her head down.

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Max was stuck riding his bike to school. In the hot desert heat. Nothing says first day of school like showing up covered in sweat. But it was fine, Max could do this. He’d done it a million times before, and he’d probably have to do it a million times again. He knew the routine.

He knew the formula for high school. So he took a moment to breathe, and walked in, at a calm, measured pace, making a beeline for the bathroom to freshen up, and make sure he didn’t look like a total mess right off the bat.

Leaving the bathroom only to get immediately tripped, and crashing into a girl who’d been standing nearby wasn’t exactly shocking, but Max was a little miffed something like this had happened so early into his day.

“Have a nice trip, see you next fall!” Sang the culprit, followed by a gaggle of other boys laughing at such a redundant joke.

Max rolled his eyes, and started helping the girl gather her things. “I can’t believe people still say that.”

The girl laughed, “Yeah, it’s pretty much just him.” She said, handing him one of his notebooks.

They made quick work of the rest of their respective things, and stood up. “So, don’t tell, I’m getting school bully? So what’s his name? Flash, Moose…?”

“It’s actually Bartholomew. But they do call him Butch.” Now Max was the one laughing.

“The stereotype lives on!” He felt an instant connection with this girl, and he hoped they could be friends for however long he was here.

“Welcome to Copper Canyon, new kid.” Max was startled by a voice behind him, he turned to see a boy around his age. “Wretched hive, of scum and villainy. I’m Kirby!”

“And I’m Sydney,” said the girl he’d bumped into.

“Nice you meet you guys, I’m Max.”

“That’s the bell, see you around Max.” Said Sydney, before turning and briskly jogged to class.

“Yeah, catch you later, new guy!” It was only after Kirby had walked off that Max realized he probably should have asked one of them for directions.

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Max was tired, and his social battery was dead. The day had gone relatively well all things considered, but it was still a big change, and ideally Max would like to go home, have a nice cold bath and hope the heat didn’t consume him entirely.

Unfortunately for Max, it seemed “ideal” was off the table for today.

He’d just reached his bike when he heard Kirby yelling. Max sighed, intervening was going to take more energy than he had, but leaving it alone wasn’t an option either. He ignores enough at home, he doesn’t have it in him to ignore things at school too.

He grabbed his bike and turned toward the noise, popping both sides of his neck. It was the highschool bully, as per usual. A group of big muscly boys, surrounding a smaller one. Typical. It felt like Max had been in this situation before.

Kirby was standing in the middle of the crowd, going from person to person as they threw his backpack back and forth, laughing at Kirby’s frustrated tears. Dozens of other students passed by, but only a few spared a glance, most sped right by.

Hoping to make this quick, Max broke through the crowd on his bike, snatching the backpack out of the air, and tossed it to Kirby. The attention immediately shot towards him, but to ensure it wouldn’t turn back towards Kirby with the added anger over his interference after Max made his escape, he added even more fuel to the fire.

“Hey, you guys do realize it's the 21st century, right? Isn’t bullying supposed to be online these days?” The laugh Max forced out sounded worse than fake, but thankfully the crowd was too incensed to notice.

Max had to admit, he didn’t really expect them to follow him on a mad dash through town. He couldn’t keep up his pace for long, he was already slowing, and he could hear Butch and friends catching up. There was pressure behind his eyes, and the breath refused to enter his lungs.

He was contemplating how to explain to his mother that he got his ass kicked on his first day, when the pain, and fatigue suddenly left him like it’d never been there in the first place. His vision was flooded with a blue tint, and Max felt better than he ever had in his life.

He was full of energy, and strength. His movements felt light and easy in a way they never had before. Max shot ahead, and looking back, he could see that he was quickly losing his pursuers. Looking back was a mistake though, as he quickly found out when Max slammed into a moving truck.

The crash totaled his bike, they were still coming, so Max had no other choice but to book it on foot, shocked at his lack of injuries after such a hard crash. He ran around the corner into an alley faster than was physically possibly to go. He could barely see past the blue film covering everything in sight.

Max didn’t know what was happening. He didn’t know how, or why, and he didn’t have time to figure it out.

The phone in his pocket rang, and without thinking Max answered it, suddenly terrified something had happened to his mom.

“Hello? Mom?” Whatever was going on, at least his voice didn’t sound like he was running as hard as he was.

“Uh, no, it’s Sydney.” She sounded amused.

“Sydney? How did you get my phone number?”

“I didn’t. That’s my phone. And I have yours. They must have gotten mixed up in the shuffle this morning.”

“Oh, my bad. Look I’m kinda in the middle of something, can we talk about it tomorrow?” The strain must be giving him away.

Now she sounded concerned. “Everything okay, Max?”

“Yeah, I just-” His reassurances were cut off when the phone sparked and broke. “Well, fuck.” They were right on his heels.

He took a hard turn into an alley, and came face to face with a chain link fence, but when he jumped to start the climb, he launched up, clear over the fence and right through the glass of a nearby condemned building.

Max must have blacked out for a few moments, because when he opened his eyes, he was curled into a ball on the floor, surrounded by broken glass, debris, and the blood of a thousand tiny cuts all up and down his arms and legs. Bringing his hands up to his face showed that he was bleeding there too.

He tried to stand up, but his legs buckled underneath him. Blue lights, blue energy shot out of his hands as he tried to catch himself.

The blue was all he could see. The adrenaline pumped through him, leaving him feeling giddy, and dizzy, and everything all at once.

Butch and his goons soon caught up to him, but Max was relying completely on instincts he didn’t know he had. He didn’t know what he was doing. It didn’t feel like he was really doing anything at all, but the blue energy burns through his veins, guiding his every movement.

“You guys need to leave! Please!” They weren’t listening to him. Max kept knocking them back, but they kept getting up and charging right back at him, and the energy was getting bigger, brighter, and everytime Max hit them, they flew farther.

How did he stop hitting them? Max didn’t want to fight them, he didn’t want to fight anyone. But somehow Max could barely muster up any actual feelings of concern. He was feeling everything and nothing at once, like he was at the top of the world, and the only thing he could manage to feel concerned about was the inevitable come down.

One last time he tried to warn them to turn away, but it was futile as they all rushed him at once, and then it wasn’t so much as a movement directing the energy, but the energy bursting from him all at once, in every direction, until everything, everyone, was covered in bright, burning blue.

Max could hear lights fizzling out, windows shattering, distant screaming, but he could see nothing but the blue. But just as it turned blue, it just as quickly faded to black, and then there was nothing.

What was happening to him?

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“Sir! We just recorded a massive surge of Turbo Energy!”

“There is no Turbo Energy on this planet!” Jason Naught spat the overworked employee. “Except for the boss, and he’s almost toast.”

“Largest energy surge we’ve ever recorded, and it’s in this city!”

Jason stormed over, and threw the analyst aside to get to the screen. Seeing the readings, he whirled back around to the analyst on the floor. “Well, what’re you waiting for? Stop your jabbering and find that signature! Sound the alarms! Whatever it takes to get me that energy source!”

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“He’s waking up.”

Max had never felt so drained in his life. His eyes slowly blinked open, and as he looked around him everything just looked so dim. Blank. It was like the color had been sucked out of everything, out of him, leaving only oddly tinted shades of gray. It felt like his head was foggy, and processing anything about his situation seemed to take ages.

It took him staring for a good, long few minutes to recognize his uncle, and even longer to notice he was in some sort of lab, and not a hospital room.

“Uncle Ferris?” His words slurred together. “Where are we? And what are you wearing?” Max pitched forwards on the cot, squinting at the weird bodysuits his uncle, and the other people around were wearing.

Distantly, Max felt that he should be afraid.

“Give us the room.” Ferris said, and everyone immediately filed out. He gestured around, “Welcome to N-Tek, Max. This is a top secret government agency dedicated to bettering the world, through improving environmental conditions, and so on. We brought you here given the unique situation we found you in.”

Max nodded. He thought that probably made sense. “Uncle, what’s happening to me?”

How did he find me at all? Max wondered.

Now it was Ferris’s turn to stare. Max thought that his uncle was examining him. Searching for something. Maybe the blue energy from earlier. Max couldn’t feel it. Maybe it was gone. He hoped it was gone. Or he would, if he didn’t feel so empty without its presence.

He’d never had it before, so why did he feel so hollow with it gone? Nothing made sense, his head was starting to clear, but it was all still just so surreal.

“What happened to the other kids that were there?” He hoped he hadn’t hurt any one of them too bad.

No answer.

Whatever his uncle was looking for, he didn’t seem to find it, as he frowned before clapping Max on the back, plastering a smile on his face, and telling Max they were taking a walk.

Max was still a little foggy, and swayed as he walked. Ferris grabbed his arm for support. “Come with me kid, I’ll explain.”

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Jason was lowered down to the communications room, composing himself. It was showtime. “Sir, we have incredible news!” A perfect confident front. No signs of wavering. Mission accomplished.

“Tell me you found an ultralink!” Harsh, demanding. Nothing like Naught’s careful control. There was no need for it in Dredd’s position.

“Even better. We’ve detected a massive surge of Takion Energy, right here in Copper Canyon..”

“Mr. Naught, suspend all Ultralink capture operations immediately. All hands on deck to hunt down the energy source. And, you know, I have just the hunter for the job.”

Jason left to the bone chilling sound of Dredd’s deranged laughter, glad he wasn’t the one on the chopping block.

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The person who used to be Miles Dredd stumbled across the room towards a special communicator. Tapping a few buttons to force the call through, a monster of rock and fire was projected into the air.

“I was sure I’d told you that if you ever contacted us again I would-”

“Yes, yes, hurting, breaking, maiming.” Dredd ticked the points off his fingers, undaunted, and unfazed by the ferocious creature standing before him, threatening bodily harm. “I remember. However, I have an assignment that is. . . let's say, mutually beneficial.”

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“It was your father that started all of this, Max.” Ferris was guiding him through the facility with his hand on Max’s shoulder.

Max tried to keep a mental map of the twists, and turns, feeling like it’d be important to know where he was going, how to get back, but he still wasn’t fully back on track. It just wasn’t clicking in his head. He knew that if he ended up alone, he’d be hopelessly lost.

The thought worried Max more than he cared to admit, but too strong to dismiss. There was just this nagging feeling in the back of his head that something was wrong. But he was here with his uncle, nowhere could be safer. Right?

After all, Uncle Ferris was the closest thing Max had ever had to a father.

“You worked with my dad?” Max had never had an opportunity to learn anything about his dad, and this seemed as safe a topic as any.

“We founded N-Tek together. Well us, and Miles Dredd, but he-he passed a while back.”

Just then they turned into a massive room, full of jets, and weapons and the like.

“I thought you said that you helped with the environment. What’s all this for?” The sense wrongwrongwrong was growing.

Everywhere they went, everyone stopped to stare at them. To stare at Max. Their eyes burned into him, following every step he made.

“I said we helped with problems like the environment, but that’s not all our organization entails.”

“Right, so what’s the giant tank for?”

Ferris didn’t answer. “Come on, right this way.” He was being led down yet another corridor. “There’s something I think you’ll want to see.”

If nothing else, Max was curious what his uncle thought he might want to see in a government facility.

They came upon a holographic monument to Max’s father, Jim. It was weird being able to stare at his father’s likeness without having to worry about when his mom would take it away. Without having to worry that his desire for a connection to his dad would bring pain to the only parent he had left.

Once again Ferris’s hand was on Max’s shoulder, and this time Max had to fight the urge to shove it off, though he didn’t quite understand why. “Your father was an amazing man. A brilliant man. He discovered one of the rarest, most powerful types of energy in the universes. Takion Unlimited Radiant Bio Optimized Energy. Or Turbo Energy for short.

“But… There was an accident. All of your fathers work was destroyed. Along with your father, and Miles Dredd.” He brought Max over to a metal ball in a display case near the monument. “This was the last thing your father worked on before he died.”

Max felt like he could sense the metal ball, that it was alive somehow. But that would be insane, right? But after the day he’d had, was anything really off the table at this point? He put his hand on top of the case, completely fixated on the object inside. Before he even realized what he was doing, he asked his uncle, “What is it?”

If he was watching Ferris, he’d have noticed how sad he looked. How it was tinged with disappointment. “Nothing.” He turned, ready to move on. “Not anymore.”

Max was suddenly filled with the odd temptation to open the case. To grab the metal ball and take it with him. Maybe as a keepsake from his father. The only one he’d have.

He shook the weird thought from his head.

As they turned down another hall, they both missed the faint glow from within the display case, and the twitch of the metal.

“So this Turbo Energy thing my dad was working on, does it have something to do with the blue? Why I’m fritzing out?” It was the only thing Max could think of. Especially given how Ferris, an exceedingly private man, had gone out of his way to tell Max about it. “I was exposed to it?”

“And now you're generating it.” His uncle smiled at him. So casual, and calm, like they were discussing the weather. Like it meant nothing. “We’ve been watching you for a long time, wondering whether anything would happen.”

“And you can help me?” God, Max hoped they could help him. He was so tired, he just wanted this day to end.

“Of course we can help.”

He motioned for Max to step into another room. But when he went in, the door slammed shut behind him, and he was left there alone. Immediately the panic started building, the feeling of wrongwrongwrong was insurmountably strong. He started pounding on the door to no avail.

For lack of any other options, Max went to the center of the room, looking up at the window above where he could see his uncle and someone else watching him. Waiting. He could hear the bridge he’d walked across retracting.

He was trapped.

“What’s going on? Uncle Ferris?” He called out, desperate for his uncle to tell him this was just some sick joke. To tell him out so he could go home. So Max could see his mom.

He just wanted to see his mom.

“This is the Turbo Max Chamber, it’ll keep your power levels stabilized.” Max looked up at his uncle, mouth open to beg to be let out, but then he saw Ferris’s face.

His stomach dropped. He felt cold. Ferris wasn’t going to help him.

He was alone on a platform with nowhere to go, and lasers coming out of the walls. Was this room made for Max? How long had they been planning this?

“So, I’m your prisoner?” He couldn’t think of anything to do, or say that would get him out of here. He could see the guns glowing, warming up to shoot at him, and Max had never felt so scared in his life.

“This is the only way to keep you, and anyone who comes near you safe, Max. This is for your own good.”

The glow got stronger, and Max could hear a rush, a roar as lasers on all sides shot into him.

It was molten lava, and pure lightning echoing through him. It was jarring his teeth, melting his blood, static through his head. It was agony personified, and it was as inescapable as it was endless.

Max didn’t know it was possible to be in this much pain and he just wanted it to stop, he’d do anything, anything to make it stop, please make it stop.

But no help came, and he was left rotting in pain, and suffering for who knows how long, until Max thought he’d be stuck here forever. Was his uncle really going to leave him here forever? Was his mom? Was she a part of this?

There was a distance screaming, begging, pleading, and it took entirely too long for Max to realize it was coming from him.

He spiraled, splintering into fragments, coming apart at the seams. Max was dying, there was nothing else it could be, and he was going to die here, locked in this room.

Right when he was at the point of no return, something seemed to snap into place. A release. And then Max’s vision, his everything was covered in that beautiful blue, the pain was gone, and then there was that rush of adrenaline and Max was okay.

The pain, and all the emotions were still there, they were just pushed back. Like a blanket was covering them until Max could get somewhere safe enough to feel them.

He was still stuck here, but he was alive, and not dying anymore, and he was full of more energy than he knew what to do with, and it was time to leave. Right now.

Max leaped back to the little landing in front of the door, guided once more by the energy, and again he pounded on the door, but this time he could feel the give, he knew he was succeeding, he just needed a little more.

But a little more grew until it was big, and again the blue permeated everything, but this time Max could feel it stretching further, growing bigger, feeding off his distress, and his desire to just leave, and it was too big, too consuming and it stopped growing within him, but feeding on him instead.

What was he going to do?

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Steel had spent a long time sleeping. Too long.

So long in that deep, endless slumber, that getting out of it on their own was impossible. Not when they couldn't even remember why they were sleeping in the first place.

They couldn’t really remember much of anything. They could remember their name. At least, they think it's their name. Did Steel always have a name? For some reason, they didn't think so. How odd.

They didn't know how long they’d been sleeping. How many months, years, before something disturbed his rest.

It was just a flicker at first. A small brush of energy greeting, but not really registering for Steel. It felt familiar, but also not.

Soon enough there were more and more surges of energy. As Steel slowly woke up, they could sense that the mysterious energy wasn’t really seeking them out specifically, it was just casting out in a long net, around the source. And the source didn't even seem aware of what it was doing.

The energy levels were rising extremely quickly. At first it just appeared to be the fact that the source was getting closer to Steel, but that didn't add up. It was spiking too fast. Becoming too unstable.

The constant energy brushing against Steel made them hungry. There was so much energy laced through the air, and Steel wondered if the source would mind if they borrowed some. If they were releasing this much without even realizing, they probably didn't need it.

But still, Steel didn't feel right taking without asking, they would absorb just enough to be able to move, and then would ask for any excess energy and go from there. That would have to be enough.

And it would have been, if the energy didn't spike to dangerous levels. At this rate, Steel’s source would consume themself before Steel could even talk to them.

The air was radiating with the source's distress. Steel was going to have to hurry if they were going to make their move. They weren't quite sure what they were going to do yet, but they couldn't just do nothing.

For both their sake, and the sources. Whatever was happening to the source was causing them to self-destruct. They would die if Steel didn't do anything. And then who knows when, or even if, Steel would ever wake up again.

So Steel did their best to project an apology, and then stole however much energy they needed to come fully online. Then they rushed to the source as fast as they could.

On their way, Steel observed their surroundings as best as possible through their disorientation. The strange building was shaking. Some lights were flickering in and out, others were going out completely.

The energy in the air was so thick, it was almost tangible. And the greater the Source's distress grew, the more violent and turbulent the energy became.

As Steel got closer to the Source, they noticed everyone else running away. It was of little consequence, and a little privacy was probably best for the conversation ahead.

At this point, Steel didn't think the energy could get under control without Bonding. But a part of them rejected the idea.

For some reason, the idea of taking over the Source entirely was so uncomfortable that Steel almost stopped in their tracks. They couldn't understand why it bothered them so much, it is their purpose, after all.

But whoever their Source was, they were so full of life, and despair, that Steel couldn't fathom draining it all away and leeching it out.

But there was little time, and it was the only idea they had. For lack of other data, they would have to convince their Source to bond with them just to help control the energy output, and deal with the consequences later.

Steel had arrived at the Source.

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Right before he fell into panic once again, the metal ball from earlier smashed into Max’s chest, before flying back and unfurling into some kind of robot. He jerked back, and ended up back on that platform in the middle of the room.

It felt like their energy collided, the blue grew still for a moment, creating a barrier around them, providing a tranquil, if temporary, breather.

“Human. You are about to overload.” The robot being informed him.

“What’s happening to me?” It was starting to grow wild again already.

“Human. If you are agreeable, my matrix can alter Turbo detonation, and together we can-”

“Wait, wait, you can stop me from blowing up, and get me out of here?”

“Did I not just say that?” The being has its arm(?) around Max’s shoulder like his uncle did earlier, leaning into him like they're friends, and for all Max knows, he might be. The creature feels so familiar, so safe, that Max can’t help but trust it.

“What do I have to do?” He asks

“Just sit back, and leave the drive to Navarro Ocks Steel 377!”

“Na- Bagalecka?” The creature looked wholly unimpressed by Max’s attempt at its name.

“Just call me Steel.” They say, with a mechanical dryness.

“Yeah, sure, it's just this whole thing is so crazy.” Max rushes out, breathless and harried.

“Crazy? You ain’t seen nothing yet!” Then the creature, Steel, turned, and put its arms up, and then flew backwards into his chest, merging inside Max with a flood of cold.

Immediately, Max could feel the blue energy stabilizing. It was still big, and bright, and loud, but now it wasn’t as wild, or uncontrollable, or scary. Steel’s energy was mixing with his own, radiating all around them, and he could feel the same guiding of his actions, but this time with knowledge that it was Steel moving him.

The energy was taking shape around him, closing in tighter, and tighter, until it started forming against his skin, practically grafting into him, until finally it created a bodysuit not unlike the one the N-Tek agents wore.

The blue that’d been exploding out of him, now retreated back inside, still there, thrumming under the surface, but more settled.

Max didn’t have a lot of time to explore this new development, however, as they could hear the storming of agents converging on his location. His uncle’s shouts of “Stop them!” They needed to move. Now.

“Initiating countermeasures.” Or not.

“Countermeasures? What countermeasure, Steel? Are you inside my head?”

Before Max knew it, he was launched, fist first, at the nearest soldier. “Steel?” He was mowing them down like it was nothing, with skill Max knew he didn’t have. It was exhilarating to move so fast, and effortless. But it was uncomfortable in that Max still didn’t want to fight anyone.

He didn’t understand why they were attacking him, what was so wrong with him that even his uncle wanted him locked up. But in attacking them, it felt like this was exactly what his uncle was afraid of, and that realization dampened any good feelings Max might have had about the situation considerably.

“Sorry.” Is all Max could say to the fallen agents as they bolted past. He hoped none of them were hurt too badly.

And then Ferris charged at them, and Max froze, he didn’t want to do this, he didn’t want to be here, how could he fight his own uncle?

Max was shoved into the back of his mind. It was like he was watching from behind a screen, where everything was muted, and distant, as Steel took full control of his body. It was dark, and cold, and it felt like Max was alone wherever he was.

He wasn’t sure how much more fear, and panic he could handle. It was too much, everything was too much, and not even Steel’s comforting presence could stop the flood running through him.

Would he even be able to go home with them chasing him? Would his mom even let him come
back? As he tried to force those thoughts back, unable to bear them right now, he watched as Steel swifty, and efficiently dispatched anyone in their way.

They came to a row of weird, tricked up motorcycles, and Max briefly came back to himself as he hopped on, and Steel seemed to connect to the electricity inside it. “But wait, Steel, I can’t drive this.”

“Oh, you won’t be driving.” And just like that Max was shoved back again. This time it felt like he was just the slightest bit deeper.

They shot forward on the bike, with the path disappearing faster than they could clear them. They weren’t going to make it. They were going to fall, or they were going to have to stop and turn, and face them and then his uncle was going to shove him into another cell, and what were they going to do to Steel for helping him?

“Calm down. We’re going to be okay.” Was it possible for a robot(?) to sound so gentle?

There was nothing for Max to do but ride it out, so he pushed down the panic as best he could. He put all his focus on the sound of Steel’s humming. It wasn’t any particular song, it was like the steady thrum of a car engine.

After all the time he’d spent on long car trips, it was a sense of comfort, of familiarity, one that Max desperately needed, so he leaned into it, even as the hole was getting closer and they were speeding up. At the last second Steel whipped the bike around to ride up the wing of a jet, using it like a ramp to shoot themselves off, and land safely into the corridor.

They kept on through the facility, Steel seeming to know exactly where they were going, leading them down the twists and turns like it was nothing, eventually driving straight into a wall. Max just closed his eyes and braced for impact.

He felt the rush of fresh air against his face. Somehow, they were outside. His eyes opened to the desert sunset. The air was cooling, and the sky was full of radiant oranges and pinks. It was beautiful, and just for a moment, Max basked in the view and it almost let him forget about the horrible day he was having.

And then the motorcycle started sparking, and swerving.

“Steel?” He shouted into the echoing caverns of his mind. “What’s happening?”

“It’s your turbo energy! It's not compatible with the electricity in the bike, and is overloading it! We’re losing control.”

Of course this occurs as they’re on track straight off a cliff, with no way to stop or turn around. This time, they were both bracing for impact, with synchronized screaming as they went right over the ledge, it felt like they were clutching each other in this mind palace.

For several moments, Max thought, once again, that he was going to die.

“Uh, human? We seem to be falling to our deaths extremely slowly.” They opened Max’s eyes to see that the motorcycle had a built in parachute. They both deflated with a relieved sigh.

Max was suddenly back in control of himself as Steel came out of his chest, and god that’d be weirder if he wasn’t so out of it.

“What is your designation, human?”

Had Max really forgotten to introduce himself? “Oh, sorry, my name is Maxwell. Maxwell Mcgrath. But, you can call me Max! And, what’re you?”

“I’m a techno organic 377 Omega class A bio parasitic Ultralink warrior. My matrix is powered by Turbo energy. You have reactivated me. I’m designed to control and absorb my host's energy. Once an Ultralink has bonded with its host, that connection is unbreakable.”

“Unbreakable? Are you saying that we’re together for the rest of my life?”

“No, I’m saying that we’re stuck together for the rest of my life. Alright.,” Steel clapped their metal arms together. “This is no time for rest. Let’s see what we’re working with.”

He pulled up a bunch of holographic data charts. “Running complete diagnostic of matric core functionality.”

“Can you get me out of this monkey suit? I want it off my skin?” He wanted his soft shirt back, and not this suit rubbing against his flesh. It was cool, and safe, but restricting, and heavy and Max wanted it off.

Steel moved their arms up and down like a conductor, and Max was forced to move with them. But now that Max was panicking about one thing, he was panicking about everything, the stress, and fear from the day catching up with him.

It had been… a long day, to say the least. Max was tired, scared, and maybe just the slightest bit irritated. Betrayed might be a bit too strong of a word to describe how he was feeling about uncle Ferris, but at this point, it was the only thing that seemed fitting.

Not to mention the robot(?) attached to him. Max wasn't sure how to process it all. He'd barely had a second to breathe, let alone deal with the fact that his uncle was going to leave him in the laser room for an indefinite amount of time!

His escape from the weird facility with the robot, sorry alien, now known as Steel, was probably the most exhilarating moment of his life. But it was tainted. Ruined by fear. Any excitement felt was eclipsed by the exhaustion.

He struggled, and fought, but nothing he did had any effect. It was like his body wasn't his own anymore. It was moving without his permission.

Steel seemed to be saying something, but Max couldn't hear, couldn't focus on anything other than the fact that he couldn't move. Steel's voice was muffled. Removed. Distorted like Max was underwater. He didn't know what was going on anymore. Not that he had had any idea before.

Panic was consuming him. Distantly, Max was aware that his breathing was coming in rapid, short bursts, but he couldn't manage to do anything about it. All he could focus on was that he wanted to move.

He wanted control back of his body. He didn't understand why he couldn't move. It was his body, his, so why couldn't he move? Why?

By this point, he had completely forgotten that Steel was there. That Steel even existed. So it was a sudden and cold shock when he heard Steel's voice inside his head.

"Max! Maxwell McGrath, you need to calm down and breathe!"

Max tried to slow down his breathing, but he couldn't. He was still too fixated on the inability to move.

"I can't! Steel, I can't move!" Max spoke, in between stuttering breaths.

"You can! Max, you can move! Try moving, you'll see!" Distantly, Max registered that Steel almost sounded as panicked as he did. Almost.

Max looked down at his hand, and slowly tried stretching his fingers. It worked! He stared down, just flexing his fingers over and over. He thought it was weird. When was he able to move again? When had he stopped trying?

He suddenly realized Steel was speaking again. It seemed to be out loud this time. Max looked up to see that Steel was right in front of him. When did that happen?

"Max, I need you to listen to me, and take a slow deep breath, okay? Yes, just like that, you're doing great! Can you take another, good, now hold it a second, and release. Good! Just keep doing that!"

Max was slowly coming back to himself. As he did, he realized that Steel didn't look too good. Their display screen couldn't seem to decide what to emote, and was frantically flitting from expression to expression. They also seemed to be shaking in midair.

Steel started to reach out for Max, to maybe place their hand, arm(?), back on Max's shoulder, but then seemed to change their mind, and retracted it instead.

As Max became more and more aware of the present, and of their surroundings, he started to notice how hot and uncomfortable he was. He moved to take his jacket off, when he remembered the weird suit he was wearing. He decided this was a conversation for once they were out of the desert.

"I'm… sorry, Max. This was my fault. I am still new to, well, everything, but especially human customs. I am an Ultralink, by nature my species bonds with, and takes complete control of whatever host we have. Usually the host is not sentient.

“As such, while we have bonded to escape as a necessity, I have not taken complete control, and only did so temporarily to run a routine health check. So it didn't occur to me to inform you. I will do my best to communicate my actions better in the future, and apologize for causing such a panic."

Max was stunned. He didn't quite know how to respond. His first response was to be angry, with a flash of irritation. But due to his exhaustion, it quickly fizzled out. So he took a minute to think about it before responding to Steel.

First things first, he never wanted that to happen again. At least not without extensive discussion, and it being an emergency situation. He still felt… wrong. Scared. Couldn't stop moving, just to make sure he still could.

Max was tired.

"I can forgive you, because I can tell you're sincere, but we need to have a serious talk about human culture, and boundaries when we're somewhere safer."

"I understand, Max."

"For now, just make sure you don't do it again, and we'll be good."

"Affirmative." It was hard to tell, but Max thought Steel looked relieved. He was still a bit upset, but clearly Steel was from nowhere around here, so he could give him some grace.

"When we have the time, Steel, I would also like to know more about you, and your race."

"I will share what I can, but my memory core seems to be damaged, and I only remember the basic information."

"We can discuss that, and see if we can fix it later. For now let's just get home. I need to introduce you to my mom if we're going to be together for a while. And then I'm going to sleep for at least 12 hours."

And then they were attacked by a giant fire monster.

Chapter Text

Getting thrown off a cliff by a raging fire monster while coming down from a panic attack was not on Max’s list of ways he wanted this day to go, but given everything else that had happened, he guessed it wasn’t totally out of the realm of possibility.

Musings about “the realm of possibility” were, however, not very helpful when plummeting to your death, Max found.

There was nothing they could do as they fell, but curl into a ball in the air and shut their eyes tight waiting for the hurt that, thankfully, never came.

Max opened his eyes to see himself suspended inches from the ground with ropes of sickly green light holding him there, before it started reeling him in like a fish. Max fought, and thrashed against it, but there was nothing he could do to stop the pull.

Whether it was because he lacked the physical power for it, or simply didn’t have the energy at this point, was impossible to say.

He was pulled into the hatch of an N-Tek airship, the door slamming shut behind him. He stumbled into the cockpit and saw his Uncle Ferris at the controls. For a moment, Max had never felt so relieved, so happy to see his uncle. He’d saved him. He was here, and so Max was safe.

And then he heard Steel’s gentle humming through their mental link, and everything came flooding back at once as Max remembered he could never feel safe around his uncle again.

“You saved us?” He briefly considered jumping right back out of the ship, but he had a feeling Steel wouldn’t be too on board with that plan.

“Strap down, we can talk after.” Max didn’t want to, but there really wasn’t a better option right now. He was worried about trapping himself further, and forced himself to focus on the warmth of the humming.

“What’s going on, Forge?” Might as well ask while he was stuck here.

“And what was that thing? Did you guys send that?” Steel added.

“Did I send that thing? No! Of course we didn’t send it, why on Earth would you think that?”

“Uh, because it attacked us right after we escaped you guys?” Max and Steel said at the time, the synchronization seeming to startle everyone in the room.

Forge sighed, “It was a giant fire monster.” He said, seemingly deciding not to remark on the uncanny timing.

“Right.”

“And what I want to know is how exactly you’re still alive?”

“Well,” Max started, “Sorry to disappoint, but-”

“I’m not talking to you.”

Steel left his chest for the first time since he’d entered, and it was like a bucket of ice being dumped over Max’s head. An absence that’d never existed before, but suddenly feels like he’s never been without, causing this deep black hole in his heart.

He was still reeling when Steel spoke, only able to process it because Steel was broadcasting their words both out loud, and directly into Max’s head. “If you’re referring to me, I can assure you, that it's thanks to this boy.”

“Are you sure we should be talking to him, Steel?” Max mentally projects to Steel. “After what happened?”

“Right now he’s our only shot at getting answers. I think we should give it a shot.” They answer back.

“Fine, but stay close in case we need to ditch.” Max was comforted by Steel reentering his chest. The empty feeling immediately dissolves. He felt like he could breathe again.

“We think they woke up when I was locked in that room. Steel said I was going to explode.” Max says out loud.

“But attacking N-tek soldiers? Stealing coordinates? What were you thinking, Steel?” Why did it sound like Forge knew Steel?

“We were escaping. Obviously.” Steel responds, just as confused as Forge seemed to be.

“You weren’t a prisoner.”

“I wasn’t? Hmm.” But Max had been.

“I’m just glad you’re back, Steel.” Forge sounded genuine.

“Wait,” Max started, “Hold up, you told me that Steel was just a project my dad was working on earlier. You didn’t say anything about him being your long lost buddy.” Not that Forge really said much of anything earlier before locking him in that room.

“Well, we all thought you were- well you know, after the accident. With Jim. But it’s good to see you.”

“I wish I could say the same, but I have no recollection of you.” Said Steel.

“That, and you just locked your nephew in a prison cell.” Steel continued just to Max, intent on letting Max know that they were on his side.

“Yeah, they said their memory core was damaged or something.” Max supplements.

It was a long time before Forge said anything about the fact that his supposed friend had lost all their memories. And when he did, it was just a single word. “Unfortunate.” Max felt like walking to his cell all over again.

Forge was friendly. Personable. Until all of a sudden he wasn’t, and Max wasn’t ready to experience it again so soon.

The panic was growing again. And Max couldn’t afford to panic now, to panic here, strapped into the cockpit with the man who’d betrayed him not even 2 hours ago. Max’s hands were shaking
again, his breaths coming faster, but then he was startled out of it by Steel’s sudden obnoxiously loud humming.

“You’re fine, Max. We’re fine. We just need to get through this, and then we can rest. Just a little more, Max, I promise.”

He wasn’t sure if it was Steel or the exhaustion, but either way there was nothing left to give. He’d have to let Steel handle the rest for the both of them. Max slumped a little in his seat, Steel giving off a gentle heat. Just a little longer, like Steel said. He could do that.

“We’re just glad to have you back.” Forge continued, either oblivious to Max’s inner turmoil, or indifferent. “And, on the bright side, with you two ultralinked, Steel can help regulate your turbo energy.” He turns to Steel with a sudden intensity. “You are? Ultralinked?”

“What does that mean, Steel?” Max can’t help but ask.

“I’ll explain it later when it’s just us, generally it means how we’re connected, so just say yes for now.” Steel assures.

Without opening his eyes, Max responded. “If you mean, do I hear their voice in my head, then yeah.”

“It’s completely irreversible.” Steel says aloud. “Which means we’re in this together.” They say only to Max.

“So I’m married to this toaster?”

“Yep.” Forge was, as Max was getting increasingly used to, unhelpful.

“Here’s the drill.” The man’s tone brokered no arguments. “Steel, you’re going to suppress Max’s energy signature.”

Steel immediately caught what Max didn’t. “That’s how the fire monster found us, isn’t it? Tracked his Turbo output?”

“Yes, and others are guaranteed to follow.”

“Understood.” There was a sharp blast of that blue light shooting out of Max’s chest for a brief moment before it receded back where Steel was connected to him. “Turbo dampening, initiated.”

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Back at THI, a light goes out.

“Sir! I, uh, have some bad news.”

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“Next, tomorrow, you two report to N-tek for testing.”

“No.” Steel is speaking for both of them. “We’ll come a week from today at the earliest. Max needs time to rest, and we need time to process. This is non negotiable. We will be left alone until then.” Steel was almost completely emulating Forge’s own voice, from the tone, to the pacing.

Max’s lips twitched upwards, amused by Steel using Forge’s own voice against him.

Still though, it worked, even if everyone could tell Forge wasn’t happy about it. “Fine. We’ll see you in a week, any later and we’ll come get you ourselves. And finally, no one is to mention any of this to your mother. She’ll kill me if she finds out.”

Max didn’t know if he wanted to involve his mother, but he wasn’t ready to decide now, so he just agreed to get this over with faster. After what Forge had done to him today, no promise was going to stop Max from telling her if he wanted to anyway.

“I want to go home. Now.”

“Understood. And for what it's worth, I’m sorry how things ended up today, Max.” He sounded just like he did all those times Max called him in the middle of the night, desperately looking for a father figure. Every split knee, or knock on the head. Every birthday.

It made Max sick to think he could never trust that again.

Max said nothing else on the way home.

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“What do you mean we lost the turbo energy signature?” The man’s roar shook the room, and it was only Jason Naught’s practice that kept him from flinching in the face of it.

The man was a predator, and he would not take the show of weakness lightly. Especially not when combined with his news. “Well, I don’t know, sir, it just vanished. Shall we resume our initial plan?”

“No! You will find me that source of turbo energy! Or you will find yourself terminally unemployed!” With that the screen went dark, leaving Jason alone to accomplish the impossible. As per usual.

“Well alright then.”

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Elsewhere in THI, a woman in full bodied armor drops from the vents.

She presses a button on the side of her helmet, allowing her to see through all the security measures THI has to offer. She takes a moment to plot her route, and then strikes, vaulting through the laser sensors, contorting her body to fit through the gaps.

Every movement tightly controlled, exactly as she planned it. She hits the other side of the hall, and immediately turns down another, she knows where she’s going, and how to get there.

She gets to the door she needs, the office, and presses another button on her helmet to scan the lock, before she is interrupted by the security. They are only a momentary distraction from her goal, and she dispatches them with a practiced ease.

They aren’t a threat.

She continues into the office, Jason Naught’s office, striding right to the desk and making for the files. She scans them quickly, saving the information for later, before sitting at the desk and holding her gauntlet to the button on the underside.

She’s quickly lowered down into a room full of screens, all displaying different files, different tech. She scans them all, and goes back up. She has what she came for. It's time to go.

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They pulled up to Max’s new apartment building in the airship, and Max would have to remember to ask about the cloaking system later. For now, he just needed off this ship.

“Remember, low profile, and we’ll see you in a week.” Forge said instead of a goodbye.

Max didn’t even pretend to pay attention. He just dropped off the ship, straight onto his balcony. So close to his bed, and Max thought he might just drop here, Steel the only thing keeping him going.

They walked inside together, and Max immediately tripped over the moving boxes scattered all over the living room.

“Max? Is that you?” His mom called from further in the apartment. “Honey, are you okay?”

He was still in that weird suit, and thankfully Steel was in his chest, but how could he explain the glowing suit molded into his skin? He threw on the clothes he’d knocked out of the boxes, suffocating under the heat of the winter clothes in the desert.

“What on earth are you wearing? You feeling okay, hun?” She reached for his face, likely trying to check his temperature, but Max couldn’t stand the physical contact right now, he jerked back into the wall.

“Honey?”

“I’m just… feeling a little under the weather, mom. I think I’m just going to go lay down.”

“Are you sure you aren’t up for dinner? It’s almost ready, I could bring you some in bed.” It was only then that the smell from the kitchen hit him. He felt a twinge of guilt at how nauseous the smell made him, the idea of food so wholly unappealing.

“No, I just want to sleep. I’ll eat in the morning.”

“If you’re sure. I’ll leave your portion in the fridge, so heat it up at any time.” She looked concerned, and Max had to fight his instinct to never let her be worried about how tired he was, and eventually the exhaustion won.

He hit the wall again on his way to his room. And collapsed into his bed.

‘Sorry Steel, I know we need to talk and to work out how we’re going to do this, but I just can’t tonight.’

‘It’s okay, Max. Just rest. We bought ourselves a week, we’ll have the time.”

Max could already feel himself drifting off. ‘Stay with me? In my chest, I mean, at least until I fall asleep. It's so cold when you leave.’

‘Of course. Goodnight Max’

‘Goodnight Steel.’

Max was lulled into a dreamless sleep to the sound of Steel’s humming.

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According to Steel's research through the laptop on Max’s desk, human’s typically sleep in 8 hour cycles, though it’s generally better for teenagers around Max’s age to get 10 hours if possible.

The point being that Steel is going to be stuck here with nothing to do for a long time.

This was fine, they’d told the human known as Ferris Forge that they needed time to process, and that was just as true for Steel as it was for Max. Suddenly coming online and merging with an unknown child on the brink of explosion was not ideal.

And that wasn’t even starting on the damaged memory banks.

The human, Forge, had mentioned an accident, but they find it hard to believe that damage so extensive was mere coincidence. It's almost like someone deliberately damaged Steel’s memory core, and with the obvious distress Max felt earlier, at the hands of his supposed relative, Steel certainly had a likely suspect.

But unfortunately the investigation would have to wait until they went back to N-tek and Steel could get their hands on the facilities files. They’re main priority right now had to be the human boy they were now permanently bonded to.

Since they fought their initial instinct to consume all that Max is and replace him with themself, then Steel would have to learn to adapt to living having their being so closely tied to another’s.

And even that in itself was strange, because Steel, ultralinks, just weren’t built for that, and even with how little memories they had, technical or otherwise, something about the need to adapt, to be a part of a bigger whole, or just the instinct to be around Max specifically was so strong, and also just shouldn’t be there.

There was also something… familiar about the child.

It was infuriating to suddenly be sprung into existence with knowledge you know you should have just out of reach. But Steel would have to find a way to manage. It wasn’t like there was much else to do during the waiting period after all.

Steel couldn’t produce their own energy, and Max couldn’t stop the outpouring of his own. They both needed each other to survive right now, and Steel decided it was their job to figure out how to make that work.

Since they’ve managed to clone the network signal and discreetly broadcast their own, Steel decided they’d use this time to look into how to properly care for human’s. Clearly, after yesterday, they needed all the information they could get.

Not just in panic responses. Steel needed to know everything, about humans in general, and their specific human. Because Max was theirs, for as long as they were bonded. Which was, of course, for the rest of Steel’s life.

The human word “marriage” comes to mind.

Regardless, to make this work, Steel would need to know how to take care of Max, and how to get along with him.

And so Steel settled into a long night of research.

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Steel was deep inside the internet and their research when they were jolted out of the “zone” as the humans say, by Max’s mother, if they’d read the relationship correctly, knocking on the bedroom door.

“Max, honey, you up? It's time for school, love.” Her voice was soft, as if she wasn’t actually trying to wake Max. The contradiction confused Steel. They'd have to ask about it later.

Steel could have used their connection to wake Max up, but, after much deliberation, decided that Max could use all the sleep he could get. After all, according to his studies, the previous day was extremely mentally taxing. Evidenced by Max’s emotional responses.

The “internet” says that Max should ideally take at least a day if not longer to work through and process the day's events, but unfortunately they couldn’t afford to put off working out their relationship, and how it was going to work.

Two life forms tied together irrevocably, indefinitely, was going to be extremely difficult, even if the two of them could come to agreement. It was two complete personalities, constantly brushing against each other, with no break, or privacy.

Steel’s studies said that could put them at odds very quickly.

Most humans needed time to themselves. To recharge, to think, to have time that was solely their own, even if only in the privacy of their thoughts.

But Max would never really have that again. Of course, by that logic, then neither would Steel, but they couldn’t see themselves taking much of an issue with it. Steel was meant to be part of a bigger whole, but Max had lived his whole life as a singular, with the assurance that his thoughts would always be his own, and no one would ever bear witness to them but himself.

Steel could access Max’s thoughts, feelings, and even his memories anytime they wanted, comb through them at their will. Max’s consent wasn’t, strictly speaking, necessary.

Their research said to be honest from the start. And Steel didn’t really think it would have occurred to them to lie, but they were increasingly worried about how Max would handle that information, and whether Steel would be harming him by telling him.

But the foundation of their relationship couldn’t be built on lies, even by omission. They had to establish exactly what their connection meant to each other, all that it entailed, and set boundaries that worked for both of them.

As Max’s mom left, Steel resolved to wait, and commit to dealing with the fallout, whatever that ended up being, and figure out what Max would need from Steel as they went.

Piece of cake, as the humans said.

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Max woke up slowly.

He could feel the sun on his face, a gentle warmth, a steady sound in his head, a hum that wasn’t his own, and for a moment, for several moments even, Max felt safe. He felt at peace. He was warm, and comfortable, and Steel was keeping him safe.

And then it all came crashing down for what felt like the hundredth time.

Max wasn’t safe. As far as he knew, he’d never be safe again. Something was inside him, coming from him, and he’d always be a target. His uncle might have made a sharp turn around after Steel woke up, but he’d still intended to leave Max in that room.

Maybe forever.

He didn’t know if he could forgive that. He didn’t even know if he wanted to. It was too much to sort through.

Now that Max was awake, and aware, he could tell he really wasn’t fine at all. His lips were chapped and his throat burned. His whole body was heavy and sore. Food still didn’t sound great, but at this point it’d been too long since he’d last eaten, and Max probably couldn’t afford to put it off any longer. A bathroom break is increasingly necessary, which brings him back to-

‘Steel?’

‘Yes, Max?’

‘Nothing. I just needed to see that you were still here.’

Steel hummed a little louder, and there was a soft burst of warmth in Max’s chest. ‘I see. It's to my understanding that you might like to stay in bed all day, but unfortunately since I cannot bring you food, I would highly recommend that you get up soon to eat.’

‘I know, Steel. I just don’t think I could get up right now. Can you check again in 20 minutes?’

‘Of course. Would you like me to leave you to rest during this time.’

‘Yes, please, I just need a little longer.’

‘Understood.’

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Steel was… concerned about their human.

He sounded so completely exhausted, and Steel could feel how low energy, how sore Max was in more ways than one, and just how overall despondent he felt.

And Max had asked for more time to rest, but Steel sat and watched as Max just laid there. Staring at the ceiling.

The ticking down of the clock was excruciating as Steel waited, eager to begin the conversation, and to see Max move around.

As the time passed, Steel was hit with the irrational thought that if Max did not move soon, he might never move again.

Steel was… relieved when the time was up and Max finally got out of bed. Seeing him upright and leaving the room, stumbling though he was, was a figurative weight off their chest.

Now, Steel was one step closer down the mental checklist of things that needed to be done before they could begin their discussion for optimal results.

Progress. Steel could do this, they tried to tell themself. But looking how beaten down Max looked trudging around the apartment, Steel’s confidence waned.

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Max took care of his business, and ventured reluctantly in the kitchen. Distantly he noted Steel flitting anxiously behind him, but he decided to leave that for later.

If Max didn’t eat now, he didn’t know when he’d muster up the energy to make another attempt.

He’d had low points over the years, so many moves, and so many issues at each new school was draining, but this was different.

How could it not be?

Nothing is the same as it was 24 hours ago. He’d never had anything consistent in his life but at least he’d known he could trust his mom.

Hell yesterday, Max thought he had his uncle too.

Everything was different now. Max was different now. He could feel the energy circulating his veins, his connection to Steel was always thrumming in the back of his mind.

Max had the irrational fear that if he cut his hand, his blood would no longer be red. A large part of him wanted to check, to be sure.

The smarter part of Max said that he was already too starved and dehydrated to do something so stupid.

Food. Right. He was in the kitchen to get food. He should probably get on that.

“Hey, Max?”

Steel sounded worried, and Max couldn’t blame them. He had just been standing in the middle of the kitchen for an unknown amount of time examining the veins in his hand.

“I’m fine, Steel.” Max didn’t sound fine, even to himself. Voice hollow and distant.

“That’s… good.” Of course Steel didn’t believe him. Max wouldn’t either. “But, Max? There’s a note on the counter for you.”

Oh. Max turned around and saw that there was, in fact, a note on the counter. There was only one person it could be from: his mom.

Unless Uncle Forge was in the house while Max was sleeping.

A minute ago, Max’s body was so heavy, moving felt nearly impossible, but now everything was too light. He was light headed and dizzy.

His mom didn’t know what happened, or maybe she did, but either way of course she’d think it safe to let her own brother in.

Safe, for everyone but Max.

He blinked and he was floor, neck digging awkwardly into the corner of the island. He was hyperventilating, which seemed to be quickly becoming a common thing for him.

“Max!” Steel projected straight into Max’s head.

He looked up to Steel a few inches above him, hovering. Their fans blowing cool air in Max’s face, flushed and overheated as it was.

“Hey, buddy.” It was a rasping murmur, but Max knew Steel could hear him just fine.

“Max, I think it would be beneficial if we connected.”

He thought about it as best he could in the state he was in. Max needed food. He needed water. And right now he was capable of providing himself with neither.

Steel could, and was willing to help. But could Max let them?

Steel was on his side. They’d proven that yesterday, and they were in agreement about Forge. But even if logically Max knew that he could trust them, with his frayed and erratic emotional state, could he handle giving Steel full control of himself?

Hunched on the floor, Max lolled his head to the side and slowly tried to lift his arm. It felt like lead, shaking on the floor.

It dropped back down and Max sighed. Whether he could handle it or not was a bridge they’d have to burn, because Max couldn’t see himself leaving the floor anytime soon without help.

“Let’s give it a shot.”

“Affirmative!” Good to hear that Steel sounded as nervous as he felt.

Splayed out as he was, it was easy for Steel to connect with him. Icy chills run down his spine, and he thinks Steel might need a recharge.

He couldn’t imagine it'd be easy for Steel. Watching their life run out as Max just laid there for hours.

Eternally a burden, Max thought.

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Steel was terrified, which is not an emotion Steel would have ever expected to feel as an ultralink. Maybe, this was the result of being bonded to a living organism.

Maybe this was why Steel’s primary instinct was to take full control, because control would be easier than dealing with whatever this was.

And if it was this… chaotic for Steel, then they couldn’t imagine how much worse it must be for their human charge.

Even with the night's research and the events of yesterday, Steel was still shocked at the range of human emotions, and the intensity towards which they presented themselves.

It seemed, to Steel, to be a massive design flaw that they had the capability to feel not only more than one emotion at a time, but with such intensity. Truly inconvenient and worrisome.

More worrisome, however, was how Max would handle Steel taking control.

After the reaction Steel got yesterday, they had firmly resolved to never attempt to exert control over Max again, despite all of their instincts telling them to, that it’d be so much faster, easier.

And that was why Steel couldn’t trust themself to do this. If they went too hard, too fast, it could set off their human in a bad way, and Steel just had this feeling that the further they were enmeshed, the harder it’d be to separate.

They would have to take it slow and steady, monitor Max’s reaction every step of the way, and if at any point it looked like Max could take it from there, Steel would relinquish control back. They had to.

It was a lot of things to balance at once for it only being Steel’s second day on Earth. At least from what they could pull from their depleted memory banks.

Steel started softly. Max had seemed comforted previously by the warmth and hum Steel provided, so they made sure to keep it up, along with a steady stream of everything Steel was doing so nothing took Max by surprise.

This was a partnership. The two of them could do this.

“Max, I’m going to start with sitting us up. Alright?” There was a mental tinge of agreement. Hopefully that would be enough.

Very carefully Steel straightened out Max’s, their limbs, for they were one at the moment. Then they got their arms out underneath them and pushed up. As they started moving, Steel was watching both Max’s physical and emotional state intently, and saw Max getting hit with another wave of dizziness as they became upright.

“Max? Talk to me. How’re you doing?” Steel knew how he was doing, of course, but they wanted Max to engage with them.

“I’m… not fine, but I’m fine. You don’t have to check in, just get it over with for both of us.” Max sounded so tired that they wanted to comply, but that just wasn’t feasible. It wasn’t okay for either of them if Steel was just trampling all over Max’s panic responses and triggers.

That would set an extremely bad precedent for their relationship going forwards. If Max was refusing to communicate any boundaries to Steel, and therefore they systematically ignored them, Max would very quickly come to a line Steel could not see, and when they crossed it, they were finished.

Neither of them could afford that.

They were, as the humans said, in it for the long haul, that meant that they had to be on the same page.

“Max-“ Steel started, then stopped. Still unsure of the right words to use. “Max. We are now connected. Forever. And as a result, there needs to be an understanding between us.”

“Yes. I agree.” Max said, like he didn’t quite believe that just yet.

“So I need to be able to trust that you’ll be honest with me. When I’m hurting you, mentally or physically. Or we’re going to fall apart, really really fast.”

Max was quiet for a moment, though Steel could feel the mental gears turning as he struggled to consider what Steel had said. If this wasn’t such an immediate concern, Steel would have waited for this particular conversation for when their human was in better condition.

“I understand.” He said, more sure this time. “Please continue to help me eat.”

“Great!” Steel was pleased that they came to an agreement. “Is this a bad time to inform you that I do not understand human cooking?”

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Max walked Steel through the tried and true art of freezer pizza, and while it baked, Steel helped him down a salt packet and a cup of icy water. Spacing the sips perfectly throughout the 22 minutes the pizza sat in the oven.

Towards the end, Max felt more stable, more present in his body, but the two decided that Steel would remain in control until the pizza was done and cut, just to avoid any complications from the heated air rushing at Max’s face.

It was nice, he thought, to have help with a small day to day struggle Max had always fought through alone.

The high rise apartment was completely air conditioned and temperature controlled, but the heated desert sun filtering through the floor to ceiling windows still gave Max a feverish feeling. That compounded with his usual oven issues was a recipe for disaster.

It was weird letting Steel control his body, even if he’d consented to it.

Now that he thought it through without the haze of panic, Max took the time to really examine his feelings. He could tell that Steel had the kid gloves on this time. They’re control ginger and tenuous, while maintaining a steady connection.

Allowing room to retreat the second Max deemed it necessary.

His limbs were moved slowly, with an unnatural stiffness, bending awkwardly at the joints. Max feeling Steel calculating the best way to move Max’s body without causing him pain.

With a body like Max’s, however, that was unavoidable.

Still, he appreciated the effort Steel made. Both in helping him at all, and in the care they took to doing it with. It reminded Max of his mother, when he was little. Before she’d grown quite so fearful. Quite so angry.

Steel felt like home, and Max didn’t quite know what to do with that.

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Max slept again after eating.

Steel’s studies had shown that sleeping was both common and important in processing traumatic events, so Steel let it be.

Despite that, Steel remained nestled into Max’s chest during the boy’s slumber, monitoring his vitals, and counting his breaths.

Steel had what the humans considered a “gut feeling” that there would be scant time to rest in the coming weeks, so they resolved to allow Max however much he could gain right now.

A teenager's optimal sleeping temperature was between 60 and 67 degrees fahrenheit. Because Max seemed to have issues with heat, and a simultaneous need to sleep covered up, Steel pumped a steady 60 through the ultralink suit, watching how Max seemed to like it.

The only response Steel received was their human curling further into his sides, as his breaths grew even slower and deeper. Steel filed the data away for further use, and settled in for the evening.

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Max didn’t wake again until 5:27am, and Steel helpfully informed him when he asked. Leaving him little more than an hour to get ready for school. Should he choose to go.

“Are you sure it is wise to go to this… school?” Steel asks, feeling Max’s intentions brush up against their own mind. “The Google, does not provide any sort of confidence regarding the safety of this establishment.”

“I think appearing normal is the best thing for us right now, buddy.” Max said, getting up to brush his teeth. “Besides, I think I need a break from this apartment.”

Steel hummed doubtfully, but didn’t protest.

Now that Max had better control of his body and emotions, he decided a proper breakfast was in order.

Max would never pursue cooking as a career for himself, but he liked to think he did rather well cooking for himself.

Hunting through the cupboards and fridge, Max found that his mother had gone grocery shopping, and their kitchen was now full of food. He decided to make himself a shakshuka.

It was one of his favorite breakfast options, when he was of the mind for that type of food. A savory number, with heavy spices, roasted onions and peppers in a tomato sauce, topped with creamy poached eggs over sourdough.

Steel watched him while he cooked, asking about the technique, and ingredients. Asking about Max’s recipe versus others that came up online. For such a mechanical being, such as Steel, whose life ran on 1’s and 0’s, they were fascinated to be introduced to intuitive cooking.

Max could see Steel visibly taking mental notes, making the effort to not only retain Max’s explanations, but also understand them.

It made Max feel warm. He hoped that as they got to know each other, that he could make them feel like that as well.

If that’s how it even worked for Ultralinks, anyway.

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Steel was not convinced that this school was a good idea, but they resolved not to complain against the boy's wishes.

Much, that is.

“Why must I reside in the back of packs? Would it not be better for the both of us to remain connected in such a hostile place?” Steel sniped, bouncing with the boys every step.

“I would like some space sometimes.” Max explained. “Especially in a social environment like this. It helps me remember that I can’t count you in conversations right now.”

Steel stubbornly hummed, despite seeing the logic.

With how entwined they were already, it’d be difficult to pretend Steel wasn’t around. Especially with the constant stream of thoughts they could both feel at the back of their heads.

That didn’t mean Steel had to like it though.

Upon reaching the school, Max was immediately ambushed by another boy coming up behind him, and throwing an arm over Max’s shoulder. Steel couldn’t help the immediate alarm as they scrambled to scan the threat through the rough material of this backpack, but outside of a brief startle, Max didn’t seem threatened by the other’s presence.

“Max, my man!” The boy crowed. “Thanks again for the help with those bullies the other day. They were just about to seriously damage their fists on my face.” He exclaimed, falling into step beside Steel’s human.

“No probs, Kirby. Glad to help.” Max said back, patting the boy's hand and then gently removing the contact.

“Let's totally hang out sometime!” He continued, unfazed by Max pulling away. “Give me your number?”

“Sure.” Steel feels Max pulling out his phone, only to have an immediate rush of guilt-frustration-helplessness.

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In the chaos of the last two days, Max had completely forgotten that he’d destroyed Sydney’s phone. And because he didn’t go to school yesterday, he’d left her totally high and dry without her phone.

“Dude, what’s with the totally broken communication device?” Kirby asked, but Max didn’t hear, walking off without a second thought.

A steady stream of panic ran through his head. ‘I totally forgot.’ ‘What am I going to do?’ ‘Sydney is going to kill me.’

“Who exactly is this ‘Sydney’ fellow, and why does he want you dead?’” Steel asked with no small degree of concern, interrupting Max’s increasingly scrambled thoughts.

“What? Sid’s a she, not he. I destroyed her phone when I was exploding the other day, like uh, like that motorcycle we escaped on.” Max said, struggling to find an explanation.

“May I see the device?” Steel asks.

“Man, I really messed up.” Max continues. “What I going to-”

“May I see the device?” Steel screeches into his head.

“Not so loud.” Max hisses back, carefully in his own mind, aware of their surroundings. But he still slips the phone into his backpack alongside Steel.

There’s a blue gleam poking through the weave of the fabric, before the phone pops up like bread in a toaster, landing perfectly in his hands.

“Hey, Max.”

And just in time, too.

“There you are. And you remembered to bring my phone, cool.” She said, her voice not high or deep, but perfectly level in Max’s ears.

“Uh, oh yeah, here.” Max said, still marveling at the seamlessly smooth screen. “Sorry I didn’t get it to you yesterday. It's definitely not broken.” His hand came up to rub at the back of his neck.

She looks it over, and opens it, lighting up at what she finds. “Oh, Max, that’s wonderful, you made me a playlist?”

“I-I did?” Max flounders.

“You did.” Steel confirms. “I compiled a collection of your most listened to songs. My studies indicate this is a common bonding ritual between friends.”

“Oh, uh yeah. No big deal, just some of my favorites.”

“But how did you get it to work? My phone wouldn’t even play music before?” She asks, smile sunny and curious.

“Oh… Well I-I uh, I dropped it, and my uh, I asked my sibling to take a look at it to make sure I hadn’t broken anything and we actually thought I did that, so they fixed it…” That sounded plausible, right?

“Wow, thanks!” Sydney said, thankfully not seeming upset. “I can’t wait to listen to it, and tell them thanks for me, Maxwell Mcgrath.” She waves a teasing goodbye, dropping off to go down a different hall.

Max couldn’t help stare after the girl, left reeling from their conversation. She was so effortlessly magnetizing.

“She’s a nice human. I can see why you like her.” Steel remarks, watching with him.

“Zip it.” Max says at being called out, face heating slightly. But he couldn’t deny that he did.

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They spent the next few days getting to know each other, and planning how they would operate both in combat, and out of it, before there was finally no other choice but to go to N-Tek.

Max desperately wanted to talk to his mom. About Steel, about Forge. About everything. But he couldn’t trust her to be on his side, and so Max said nothing.

Molly was so busy with her new job she didn’t notice.

The fears of everything were pressing in on Max, and going to N-Tek felt much like he was going to his grave. If Steel wasn’t an ever present hum in his head, and his suit an eternal wall between Max and his uncle, he thinks he’d run. Run and never stop.

But he had Steel, and a commitment, so he elected to suck it up. For now.

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There was no getting used to N-Tek. Its massive cavernous walls were sterile and cold. An echoing maze lit up in harsh neons and mechanical whirrings.

It was alive but not, and every step left Max more uncertain of how wise it was for them to be there.

His uncle stood before him, with an entire team, waiting at the end of the hall, leading to a man-made crater, lined with some blend of metals that made Max sick to the stomach just looking at it.

“There’s something… off about that material.” Steel whispers in his head. Max is unable to respond in front of his uncle.

“Ready to get started?” Forge asks in a way that sounds like an order.

“Ready.” Max says, doing his best to project confidence.

With a mental nudge, and the spoken “Going Turbo!” Max is transformed.

It's like being filled with molten flames, coursing through his blood. Liquid lava roared through Max’s body, flowing back and forth through the newly born connection between boy and Ultralink.

The pure energy now controlled, providing Max with a strength and stability his base body lacked. Max was more attuned with himself, and his senses like this.

More attuned to Steel. It was as if they were of one mind, one body.

It made Max, both of them, feel powerful.

They moved to the center of the crater, awaiting instruction. They didn’t look at the people in the room, but the lines of energy that filled the area, lighting up before their eyes. Clustering near machinery, thrumming through the walls.

And pinging off the crater metal, tinged with a sickly green.

They are brought back into focus by Forge’s commanding voice. “Today we are interested in learning everything we can about your powers, and your link with Steel.”

Their attention is drawn to a shifting behind a massive hatch nestled in the panels. The sound of metal scraping on metal paired with the pounding of heavy footsteps, echoes through the steel walled atrium.

The reverberating noise grates in Max’s head, and causes growing spots in his eyeline, before Steel’s helmet materializes over his head, muffling the sounds. Granting Max the sweet relief needed to examine the threat.

“Knowing your limits will help us keep you, and everyone else, safe.” Forge's voice was distant now, unimportant in the face of the mechanical monster in front of him.

It was a bulky 10 foot robot. Metal and flexible alloy blending together to create a somewhat humanoid form, bathed in the harsh signature green of N-Tek. The thing was fast, agile, and had its own intelligence system, combined with Berto’s own controls.

Able to go back and forth with its own AI programming, and remote controlled by human interference. Steel was feeding him information nearly as fast as they processed the data from their scans, breaking it down into bits Max could understand.

He appreciated the consideration.

Max runs at it, twisting in midair to avoid the fist, trying to gauge its capabilities. It's fast, but not unmanageably so. The pair backs up, letting it chase them as they continue to dodge, Steel charting its reaction time, and the strength of its hits.

“We’re ready.” Steel says.

“Going Turbo! Strength!” The suit expands around him, growing bulkier and lifting Max up as he is encased by energy made armor. Will made bone into a solid exoskeleton around the two of them.

Max charges forwards, taking the hit and letting it absorb into his extended arms, all to get in close and crush the neck, burning the wires and gears as they tore the head off, and toss it to Bato.

“Heads up!” He calls.

Berto presses a button and another robot comes out of the hatch, similar size, but with some clear key differences.

“Watch out!” Steel warns, too late, as Max takes the laser shot head on, and is thrown into one of the metal walls with the force. This hit landed a lot harder, the breath being knocked out of his chest.

His suit goes back to normal, shrinking and buying a second for Max to recover before the two are on the move again, twisting and turning in air, counting the time between shot, and the energy it takes to produce them.

It isn’t a spoken plan, but a mutual understanding that leads Steel to pull from his chest, as he overloads his friend with cyan, and throws them like a boomerang. Steel burns blue, and cuts right through the bots power source, causing the facility to rattle with the resulting explosion.

Steel floated over to Max in the aftermath, dizzy and off balance. “Sorry, buddy.” He says, righting Steel, and keeping an eye on an increasingly annoyed Bato above them.

This time it was a small army of mechanical beings, surrounding Max and Steel. He was starting to get overwhelmed now. Feeling just a bit like he was once again being backed into a corner.

“Hey.” Said Steel, coming into focus. “Tag, you're it!” They tap Max on the shoulder, and darts away, Max coming after them.

Steel guides Max on a convoluted path through their foes, ducking and weaving them into a tangled knot of crashes, and near misses. There were too many for Bato to single handedly be controlling all of them, so their actions served to confuse the autopilot.

Once they started to stumble, Steel flew back into his chest for another round of Strength mode, and together they took out 2, stretching for a 3rd when a gut shot electrocuted his system, and sent him crashing down to the hard floor.

It dragged Max up by the ankle and spun him round and round and round. Acid in his stomach roiling around, as his face and neck begin to heat up.

Steel hums in an attempt to sooth, but it just slams into the cacophony of sensation that's already too much, and it's all Max can do not to yak when suddenly-

Suddenly they’re in the air.

They went up and up, past the lip of the plane hatch in the ceiling, until suddenly, they were going down, hurtling down towards the ground, too fast for Max to see, their surroundings blurring in front of his eyes, again going colorless.

“What have we got, Steel?” Max asked. Screamed.

“Looking, looking, here we go! Flight mode, activated!”

Just before they reached the floor, the suit morphed. A glider growing from his back, spinning and flying back up into the air, but a more controlled flight. Their movements are intentional now, rather than helpless flailing.

They took out the robots that remained, one explosion after another. A massacre of mechanical limbs and parts, filling the training arena.

Steel took them back up, soaring towards the great ocean of sky above them, and together they took a jaunty trip over the canyons, buying some time before they had to head back to N-Tek.

For the first time all day, Max felt like he could breathe. And that was all thanks to Steel.

“Thanks, buddy.” He said, knowing the feelings of gratitude was spilling over through their bond.

There was only a warm hum in response, but words weren’t needed. They continue on over the sunbaked sand for a little longer before circling back around to the facility.

Max knew these solo flights would become commonplace.

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When Steel and their human returned to N-Tek, the crater had been cleared from their carnage, and scrubbed of the spilled fuel.

They’re attention was still on the mysterious wall panels that rejected any and all attempts to breach their structure with their scans. They shimmered, just slightly, in the light.

Steel wondered how hard it’d be to break into N-Tek at night, to really take the time to study what this material was, and its effect.

N-Tek had had an entire room designed to contain Max at this facility, and presumably many more on standby. There was no telling how many other measures they had in place should Max prove uncontrollable.

Max had reacted badly to the panels, even if only ever so slightly.

Steel was careful to not keep their object of focus obvious, however. They would be a fool to not realize that as much as they were studying N-Tek, N-Tek was studying them. They’d even outright admitted it at the beginning of the training session, though in a far less sinister way than Steel had taken it.

The whole facility was chock full of cameras, and programs, cataloging their every move, and for now, there was just nothing the pair could do about it.

A phone rang, Max’s.

They separated while Max took the call, the boy immediately at ease at the sound of Sydney’s voice.

“Uh huh, that sounds great! Okay, see you then. Bye!” By the sounds of things, Steel’s human had landed himself a date.

They shared a fist bump, or whatever facsimile allowed by Steel’s pointed metal arms.

“That-uh wasn’t your mom, was it?” Forge asked.

The whole room was suddenly united in their shared disapproval of such an idiot comment.

“What? No?? That was Sydney. From school.” Max looked at the man, speaking slowly like the man was stupid. And then he got distracted. “She just asked me on a date!” He said, hand coming up to run through his hair.

Then Max’s phone spritzed out in a shower of sparks and screeches. Much like, Steel assumed, Sydney’s had gone out.

“Damn… Hey, Steel. Think you can fix this one too?”

Steel gave a dramatic, put upon sigh, before gesturing for Max to bring it over. “Come on, we have a date to get ready for.”

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“I can’t believe you forced me into this monkey suit.” Max complained, as he’d been doing for the 20 minutes it took for them to get to the cafe. He’d royally lost the outfit argument, and was still annoyed about it.

“And I can’t believe that you’re fussing with a holographic collar.” Steel lacked sympathy.

According to Steel’s research, romantic partners, prospective or otherwise, preferred when their partners took time and effort with their appearance. While they were sure Max would have provided that on his own terms, while the boy was in Steel’s suit, that was Steel’s responsibility.

First impressions matter, and Steel was invested in Max’s success.

The issue was tabled when Sydney arrived anyway. “Here she comes.”

“Wow,” Says Max, fawning over the teenage girl.

“Wow,” Says Steel, fawning over the human’s perfect facial symmetry.

“Aren’t you all dressed up?” She asks, smile wide and teasing.

“Point for Steel.” They ghost across Max’s mind, the boy shaking his head, as if to shake Steel off.

The 2 that was really 3 walked into the cafe.

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Around the corner, at a much less cordial meeting, sat Forge Ferris and Molly Mcgrath. Two siblings sitting with years of built up tension between them.

One of whom tried to pretend that tension wasn’t there.

“Molly! How lucky it was that I just so happened to be in Copper Canyon when you called!” He remarked with forced jovality.

“Right.” Her response was dry, and her eyes were steely. “Quite the coincidence. Though I guess I could have come to you at the new Copper Canyon N-Tek facility.”

Forge chokes on his coffee. “You got me,” He says when he recovers. Placating now. “You always were the best of us, Molly.”

Her smirk lights up her face. “I still am.” She remarks, tossing a tablet in his direction, before primly taking a sip of her own coffee. Molly watches him over the rim of her mug.

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“You know, Kirby told me how you helped him with those bullies. That’s pretty cool of you. Most people wouldn’t bother getting involved.”

Sydney had the deepest, brownest eyes. Flecks of pitch and gold, highlighting and darkening them in different spots of light. They were beautiful. Sydney, was beautiful.

And Max? Had been staring wordlessly for far too long.

“She liiikes you!” Steel sang into his ear. “Say something.” They coaxed. “Funny. But not too funny. Oh, or geeky. Say something intelligent.”

Steel was going too fast for Max, overwhelming him until he was being talked at, instead of with. No room to even begin formulating a response to the girl he was on a date with.

“Uh, Max?” Sydney asked, concerned now.

“Hi! Uh, I’m sorry, I just uh, need a moment.” He quickly shuffled to the bathroom, and was glad to see it deserted.

“Look, buddy. I uh need a little space for a bit.” Max’s eyes were downcast, feeling guilty about what he was saying.

“But we aren’t supposed to be separated. I need to monitor your Turbo output when we’re out like this.”

‘I know, I just, I need a few minutes. Can you do that for me, Steel?” Steel didn’t seem convinced, but finally relented.

“I just want to help.”

“I know, Steel. I know.”

“Fine. You get a few 30 seconds alone with your precious girlfriend. But at any sign of trouble, you come back to me, alright?” Steel was firm on this, and Max agreed.

But the truth was that being with someone every second of every day was exhausting, and this is just where Max had reached his limit. It was something he’d have to address and figure out with Steel later, but for now he’d take a stolen minute with Sydney.

He didn’t know why he was so drawn to her, but he couldn’t deny that he was. They’d barely shared a full conversation, but the girl was magnetic, pulling Max in, and making his heart race.

He liked it. He liked her.

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Steel locked eyes on the electric hand dryer in agitation. “What’re you looking at!”

They’d promised 30 seconds. They used their heightened senses to track his movements, nervous about anything happening to their human while he was out of sight.

Max was Steel’s responsibility and vice versa. And that’s how it would remain for the rest of Steel’s life.

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“It seems to be some sort of giant energy collector.” Forge remarked upon reading the plans on the blueprints Molly had handed him.

“But what’s it for?” Molly asked. “THI has invested millions of dollars into this thing.”

“I always knew THI was dirty!” He exclaimed, before realizing his mistake.

“So that’s why you got me that job there?” The question was cold and deadly.

“Molly! Come on, you’re retired!” He flounders, the pretense only thinly veiled now.

She couldn’t bother with her brother's antics. “You knew I’d get that job, and you knew I’d go poking around when I noticed things weren’t lining up.”

Forge looks at his sister with an undeserved pride. “Once an N-Tek Agent, always an N-Tek Agent!”

Her mug was sat on the table with an audible click.

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It started slow.

Max got back to the booth, happy to note that Sydney was still there.

“Everything okay?” She asked. “I ordered you some tea.”

He felt touched by the genuine concern she showed for him. “Yeah, sorry. Everything’s great. You’re great, Sydney.”

She smiled, and ducked her head to the side.

“Listen, Sydney.” He started.

“Yes?”

“I really like you. Like, a lot.” Max said, her giggles jingling in the air between them. “And I just wanted to say that I-”

Sydney leans over the table to get closer. “Yeah?”

There was no more need for words, as the two both pulled closer and closer. Both were drawn by a mutual attraction so instinctual, that neither could conjure up the words to describe it, and neither needed to.

They’re lips made contact, her plush lips on his chapped ones, sliding together chaste yet romantic.

It could have gone on for minutes, hours, days even. But the two didn’t have that long.

It started with a small jolt. Just enough to shift the water, and one that Max wouldn’t have even noticed a few days ago.

But it wasn’t a few days ago, and Max had been altered beyond recognition.

Max yanked apart, harder than intended in his panic. “Did you feel that?”

“Feel what?” Sydney asked, startled by the sudden change of mood.

But then it happened again, stronger now. And Sydney could feel it for herself, even without the spill of her cup, tumbling off the table.

Max didn’t know what was coming, only that something was. There were only seconds to act before everyone around them was consumed in a haze of panic. He had to get out in front of it.

He leaned in close, one last time, to breathe into her ear. “I’m sorry.” Max says, and then it's time to go.

He grabs her by the wrist and tugs her out the door. They run out, the pavement devolving into rippling Lichtenberg flowers, before crumbling entirely.

Cars were getting thrown from the safety of their parking spots, and windows from the surrounding buildings started to shatter one by one.

A monster of flame, and a monster of rock materializing on either side.

“You have to get out of here.” He says, with no regard for himself.

Sydney wasn’t having it, a stubborn fire in her eye. “But what about you?”

“I’ll be fine, I promise!”

They got lucky with the taxi skating by, Max all but having to step in front of it to get it to stop in its tracks. With unnatural strength, he yanks open the door, and gently places Sydney inside, kissing her head and passing her 20 bucks for the fare.

She looks shocked and bewildered, not given the time to process what was going on. Max nods at the driver, to send him on his way.

He watches it drive off, and then sees the window open. “Text me when you get home!” She calls, her voice getting further and further away.

Max turns, trying to back inside to find Steel, when the rock monster grows stalagmites through the entrance of the cafe, blocking it off entirely.

“Max?” His head jerks around to see his mom and Uncle Forge running towards him from around the corner.

“Mom? Uncle Forge?”

“What’re you doing here?!” They all demand each other.

“Look out!” Forge yells, them all diving to the side as a blast of fire screams through the air towards them.

Forge presses a button on his watch, summoning his car to them, just in time for them to avoid a blow from the rock monster this time, jumping in and tearing off the street. Both monsters are in hot pursuit.

In the distance, Max could see Steel smashing through glass, but he’d have to go through both monsters to get to them.

“Damn it, Forge! Why are Elementors chasing after my son?!” She demands, finger jabbing into the man’s face so hard, it derails the entire car off track.

“You gotta go back!” Max insists, about to climb to the front and do the same thing as his mother. “We left Steel!”

“Wait. Steel?” And now she’s furious.

And so is Forge. “I told you two to stick together! How can they suppress your Turbo energy signature if they aren’t here?”

“Turbo energy-? Forge Ferris, you tell me what’s going on right fucking now!”

But they were interrupted by flying rocks hurtling towards them one by one, dodging their way down the road, the car bounced with the aftershocks of every near miss.

She turns on him now. “Maxwell Mcgrath, you tell me what’s happening! Right now!” Her voice was softer when talking to her son but no less hard for it.

Max locked eyes with Forge in the rearview mirror, seeing him shake his head at Max. Unfortunately for him, Max owed no loyalty to that traitor.

“Forge told me I couldn’t tell you!” He felt no shame or guilt in throwing his Uncle under the bus.

Steel was still slogging on behind them, yet unnoticed by the Elementors chasing after Max with a one track mind.

Sweat was pouring down Max’s face in the heat, growing hotter and hotter with every ball of fire tossed they’re way, Forge only narrowing avoiding them.

“Kids these days.” Rock Elementor says, in an echoing, warbling voice that fills the air around them. “Always in a rush.”

Streaks of flames course through either side of them, going through the line of parked cars and exploding the fuel lines, bumped up with rock and sent straight at them.

This isn’t a hit they can avoid this time, Max knows that instinctually.

Without Steel connected, his raw energy is collecting and pooling, the production accelerated by his fear, making it easy for Max to reach for. With purpose for the first time, Max draws on electric blue, and in a sharp burst, throws it at the coming car.

And then he does it again. And again. Before Forge hangs a left and the rest of the cars sail into the buildings at the end of road in a shower of glass and flame.

Only the rock monster rounds the corner with them, Steel right at its heels.

“Forge! Steel’s right there!” He screams.

“Steel?” Molly breathes in shocked recognition, but Max doesn’t have time for questioning her right now.

“I can get you there.” Forge says, “But I can’t guarantee the landing.”

Max doesn’t even have to think about it, eyes fixed firmly on Steel. “Do it.”

Forge makes a sharp U turn, charging at the Elementor in a game of chicken, until at the very last second, he makes a hard shift, launching Max into the air, and he boosts himself with blue to just barely scrape past the Elementor, and connect with Steel during the fall.

And then it was game on.

They morph into flight mode, spinning around and blasting off a shot at the ankle, causing a stumble and buying time to shift towards strength mode, growing to a similar size as the Elementor.

Both sides run a mutual charge. Colliding on a crosswalk, Max and Steel dodge an arm of rock, and swipe the Elementor into a nearby skyscraper. Behind, Steel runs a constant commentary of Forge and Molly’s every move as they disappear around the corner.

Steel provides Max with a mental aerial map of the city, charting the energy signatures of both friend and foe. And those undecided. He keeps half a mind on that, while not letting the Earth Elementor leave his line of sight.

They match each other blow for blow, the energy that explodes from every hit that connects throws cars, parking meters, and everything else within radius of the fight. A series of earthquakes creating a crater arena for their tussle.

Every hit, Steel learned, but with every hit, the Elementor learned them as well. The small advantage their shared form allowed, didn’t last long. It was a neck and neck fight, and Max Steel were swiftly losing ground.

“Now, Max!” Steel calls, projecting a plan through his head, that Max follows before it even processes what they’ve asked him to do.

Together, they take a hit to the shoulder, leaning into it to get in close, and then redirecting the force of the blow into a jagged knee cap. They leap up onto rigid spikes, shifting mid movement into flight mode, and sending off a blaze of blue lasers right through the joint of the elbow.

The same strategy they’d used in training.

The arm separates from the body, and the Elementors scream is not of pain, but of fury.

As one, Max and Steel move in, and they switch back to strength mode seamlessly, they throw the Earth Elementor into a far off, unseen, distance.

The fight is over. Except…

“Max, look out!”

He dives out of the way, but not fast enough, as a ball of pure fight slams into his back. It throws them into a concrete wall, pinning them in place as the flames stick into the crevices of his bones, and lick at his joints.

The Steel suit isn’t enough to block out the heat, and Max pants at the weight of it encasing his body.

They’re knocked out of strength mode, to the base layer of the suit, and Max fights against the scorch to roll out of the onslaught. Retreating to buy a breath.

It doesn’t help, as by the time Max and Steel have regrouped, so have the Elementors.

By this point, Molly and Forge have circled back around the block. One attacks Max’s family, and the other attacks them. Each time Max takes his eyes off his attacker to help Molly and Forge, it only opens vulnerabilities in their defense.

“Steel?” Max says mentally. “I’m getting tired.”

He was sure his new friend already knew. HIs movements were flagging, and his breaths came harder and hoarser.

There’s a sigh, and then Steel disconnects from his chest. “Throw me.” They say, arms outstretched, and screen displaying an eye tightly closed.

“It makes you sick!” Max says, but there’s no other choice. They’ve run out of moves.

“A well timed combustion should snuff out those flames.” Steel’s words fall in quick succession. “Throw me, Max! Do it now!”

And so Max does, charging his Turbo energy into his palm, and then into Steel. He reels back, and then throws, chucking Steel into the fire Elementor dead on.

It works. The flames go, but then so does Steel, drifting off aimlessly as they struggle to gain their bearings.

“Too small!” Max is batted to the size by a hand bigger than him. His head bounces onto asphalt, and Max’s vision fades in and out.

The monster towers over him. Arm is back in place, and both hang over him like mountains, ready to crash down on top of his skull.

He rolls, and writhes on the ground, but Max can’t seem to move. Can’t even speak to call out for Steel, except for in his head, where he screams and screams, but he can’t hear anything respond.

He’s only known Steel for a week, but his head feels horrifically empty. The room he held in his mind for Stee is cold with static, the connection concerningly cut off. Max stares at the rock above him, waiting for the shoe to drop.

Neon green shoots into the Elementor, drawing its focus, and for a second, a single heart racing second, Max has hope that he can get out of this. Go to Steel, and to his mom, and then tonight he could sleep.

Max is so tired.

But he still couldn’t move, and all the gun shots glance off of the monster as it brings up a wall of rock, splitting through the road in a ripple cracked concrete. The rock makes an overhang over him, blocking Max’s sight from his family, and then it explodes outwards, hailing over Molly and Forge.

He can see Steel trying to get close. They’re too far away.

Max looks up just in time to get his lights punched out. His body is heavy, and Max feels more tired than ever. What has he gotten himself into?

He idly hopes that Steel will be okay without him.

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Steel is helpless to do anything but watch as the Earth Elementor disappears with Max in hand.

Sparks emit from the joint in their metal arm, frizting out Steel’s mechanics and ability to move, to fly after their human.

“Max?” They call, over and over, in their mind and out loud. Hoping against hope that Max would receive their message. That he isn’t alone, and that Steel would find him.

Whatever it took to make that happen.

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Max blinks awake slowly, eyes tacky and thick as he fights through an ocean of heaviness to break through the surface of consciousness.

When he finally wins, Max is tempted to close his eyes against what he sees.

A masked man stands before him, uncomfortably close. He looks sickly and pale, with purple bruises sinking under his eyes.

He watches Max intently, with a look that he can’t quite place.

Anger? No. Disgust? Maybe closer, but not quite.

“Awake, huh? Wonderful. I can’t express how ecstatic I am to have you here.” The man rasps.

Max looks around. He’s pinned at every limb and joint to a kind of cot that’s standing up, forcing Max to stand with it. His legs are together while his arms are strung out. Idly, Max thinks of Jesus on the cross.

A maze of wires are hooked into the grooves of his suit. He feels oddly heavy and dull. Dry like something was leeching all the hydration of his body. Max felt distantly scared, like this situation was happening from really far away.

He thinks that’s more concerning than anything else.

“And where is here?” Max asks with caution.

The man brushes the question aside. “Unimportant. What matters is why you’re here.” He stalks over to a set of monitors that take over an entire wall. Running through data faster than Max could keep up.

“I’m told you're special…” He says with his back to Max. “I’m told you're literally bursting with specialness.”

“No idea what you’re talking about.” Max quips, trying to keep the nervousness out of his voice. He fails.

Turning back to Max, the man puts a helmet over his head. “Don’t insult my intelligence. After all, we’re going to be chums for a long, long time. And do you know why?”

Max is thankful he’s still entwined with Steel’s suit, helmet covering his own face, and whatever expression he was making. “My sparkling personality?”

“Because of your Turbo energy.” The man presses on as if Max hadn’t said anything at all. His hand comes up to press into the wall by Max’s head. “Turbo energy that’s about to be mine.”

Suddenly, Max’s heart drops into his stomach, he remembers the look the man had leveled him with earlier.

It had been hunger.

“And believe you me, I will put that power to good use!”

He places his armored hands against Max’s suit, and then-

Max’s vision is full of cool blue, but it's not generating from him, it’s being sucked out of his body en masse. He’s being drained, like the man is scooping out his insides and absorbing them.

His body flails against his bindings, and Max is screaming, he knows he is by the tearing of it as it leaves his throat, but he can’t hear it.

He can’t hear or see against the pain. His body burns, and his bones ache, and something is clamping against his heart, and Max is dying.

He has to be dying because what else could this be?

The room Forge locked him in didn’t remotely compare to whatever was being done to him.

When the hands finally pull away, Max drops against the board holding him up. There’s tears and drool dripping down his face, and he can’t stop shaking.

“This is all thanks to you, my new best friend! I’ll be back when you’ve replenished your supply.” Drifts through the mottled static infecting every inch of his body.

The pressure in his head cleaves against his bones. Like a balloon expanding in his head, on Max’s skull concaving inwards. It was both at once, and it hurts.

Max finally feels the full force of the fear his poor condition had been holding back.

The man was going to do this again. He was going to keep Max here to feed off again and again.

Max’s eyes close against his mounting horror.

Chapter Text

Steel is carried through the swiftly mobilizing N-Tek facility by Molly, patching up their arm and systems as they move.

Forge Ferris leads the charge. “Clock is ticking, people. We need an Omega Priority rescue mission scenario asap.” The man’s voice is crisp and hard. “What do we know?” He snaps at Berto.

“Not much. We weren’t able to trace the Elementor’s signature after the battle, and Max’s signature went dark. We’re blind.”

“Not for long.” Forge holds up a tablet, handing it to Cat. “Analyse these. I want a brief and an action report in 30.”

“Yes, sir!”

Steel works faster.

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Max wakes up faster this time, but is no better for it.

His head hangs into his chest, and his body still ripples with the aftershocks.

“Welcome back, my friend.” The voice is clearer now. More even. Somehow, the man had doubled in size, and he towers over the screens he’s perched at. “Feeling better? So am I, as you can plainly see.”

Max fights a losing battle to stand up straight.

“It's all thanks to you.” The man continues. “And as soon as you generate more Turbo energy, I’ll feel even better still!”

There is no amount of struggling that will save him from the man in front of him, Max knows. And still he fights, with every scrap of strength that he has, because what else is there for Max to do?

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“This is where Max was grabbed.” Cat explains. “Factoring in time and optimal underground travel speed of the Earth Elementor, that puts Max somewhere within this radius.”

The group made up of Forge, Molly, Cat, and Jefferson stood around a table, examining a holographic map of the city. Multiple points were highlighted, and they shift and pull at the map as they have their discussion.

A large red circle appears over the target area. A smaller blue circle appears in the center by Molly’s hand.

“That is Trans Human Industries.”

“I see.” Jefferson says, hand to his chin. “So THI wants the kid’s Turbo juice. Just who are these guys?” He asks, turning to Forge.

He doesn’t have the time to answer, as Berto and Steel reenter the room. “Molly, those files you swiped from THI, priceless! Check this out.”

He presses a button on his watch, and aims it at the holograph. The map is replaced by a diagram of THI’s building.

“This is THI.” Berto lectures. “The plan looks ordinary enough, until Steel-”

“Until you activate the hyper encrypted cipher code buried deep within the data files.” Steel continues on.

Berto presses another button on his watch, and the building plans are overlaid with new blueprints, showing armored walls, secret passageways, and rooms that just shouldn’t be there at all. “This place is a fortress.” He breathes.

Turning to Molly, he says, “I don’t know how you got in and out of there in one piece.”

“They weren’t expecting me.” She says, iron in her eyes. Every inch of Molly's body is wound tight and hard. She stands unnaturally still, a false calm belying the sense of death radiating off of her in droves.

“They will be now.” Forge says, leveling a look at each and every person in the room.

Berto continues as if he wasn’t interrupted. “Still, we did find one way in.” He zooms in the map, focusing it on one point of the building. A hatch dozens of floors up.

“There’s an exterior maintenance hatch snuck between tower levels 58, and 59.” Steel explains.

Jefferson’s hand comes back up to his chin. “I see. So an aerial approach, and then rappel down along the south side-”

“No.” Berto cuts in. “We said it was a maintenance duct. Not a doorway. It’s too small for a person.”

“But not too small for me.” Steel says.

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Everytime Max comes too, he hopes that when his eyes open, he’ll be somewhere else.

Max never is.

He is held up solely by the chains binding him to the board at his back. He’s long since given up the pretence of supporting his own weight.

The bond between him and Steel remains muted, and none of his calls have gone through. Max could have been here for hours, or days and he wouldn’t know.

Steel couldn’t live without Max’s energy, and Max had nothing left to spare.

“Why are you doing this?” Max can’t help but ask after the 3rd, or maybe the 4th time he’s drained.

“Why? Why does anyone do anything?” The man stalks around the room like a born hunter. “For power! Why are you working with N-Tek?”

Max lets out a weak and bitter chuckle. “N-Tek? Never heard of them?”

“Oh, please.” The man presses close, and Max flinches, bracing for the inevitable pain. “You were seen with my former colleague, the insufferable Forge Ferris!”

His laugh is harder this time, even as it reverberates through his bones, and burns like acid. “Well he is insufferable, I’ll give you that.”

The man moves on like Max hadn’t said a thing. “But you. You remind me of another old friend.” His voice goes far off, wistful. “He dreamed of saving the world by harnessing the most powerful energy source anyone had ever discovered. Turbo energy.”

He turns back to Max. Each drain has made the man bigger, stronger, and his shadow engulfs Max entirely. “An energy I knew would make us rich beyond our wildest dreams!”

The wires attached to Max give off a cool blue, and a nearby computer screen beeps.

It’s time to be drained again.

He has nothing left in him to scream, but Max’s mouth opens in anguish anyway. Hoarse chokes and whines vomit past his lips, and tears stream down his face, collecting into his collarbone.

Max can’t stop crying. He can’t stop anything. He’s pinned to a wall like a butterfly on display. A marionette doomed to be at the mercy of whoever’s holding his strings.

Forge’s, or whoever this was.

Had Forge intended to steal his energy, instead of just stalling it? Would he have drained Max over and over to repurpose the energy he generates, just the same?

He wanted his mom. He wanted Steel. Steel would protect him. Max should never have left his friend behind, or this could all have been avoided.

For what felt like the millionth time, Max blacks out.

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“ROCC the Beach Ball, what’s your status?” Jefferson calls through the mic.

There’s a veritable army lurking in the alleyways surrounding THI, cloaked and at the ready. They all waited for Steel’s signal.

“Approaching THI tower.” Steel informs, as the group watches their form move up the floors on their map. “Level 56. 57. 58. Maintenance hatch achieved.” Steel makes a well timed shot at the nails holding the hatch in place, entering it as soon as pops open.

“How are we on time?” Molly asks.

Forge Ferris checks his watch. “32 minutes, it’ll be close.”

“Close?” Jefferson asks incredulously.

“Max and Steel are Ultralinked. They can only be apart for 12 hours at a time. After that, Max’s body goes critical, unable to process the Turbo energy.”

Steel’s robotic whirring voice drifts back over the line. “Actually, Max is not at risk of overload. I can read his Turbo energy through our Bond. It’s almost dangerously low, and unfortunately, so is mine.”

“That’s the other problem.” Forge explains. “If Steel can’t link up with Max, they’ll run out of juice and shut down. Permanently.”

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“I decided I’d simply have to take what I wanted.” The man continues. “I couldn’t understand how he was creating the Turbo energy, but I was able to build a device that could siphon and store this energy for my own purposes. The siphon worked as intended, but the storage? Disastrous.”

He paces in front of Max, and Max wishes he had the energy to think of something clever. To mock the man for having the most basic bitch villain origin story in the world. But Max had nothing left.

Max is awake, but not, and more than a touch hysterical. Trapped in a liminal space where pain chases him round and round in eternally spiraling circles, and time doesn’t mean a thing. He no longer blacks out. He no longer sleeps. Eyes that don’t even have the energy to close.

“The resulting Turbo energy explosion permanently embedded my siphoning device into my body. Horrible, really. But thanks to my device, my body absorbed the Turbo energy creating a dependency. Alas, my colleague, he did not survive.” The voice drones on and on, backdrop to the horror Max knows dogs his every breath.

His calls to Steel have dropped off. Everything feels so cold and distant. Like his life isn’t his. All Max has is the pain and voice that won’t stop chattering about greed and hunger for things the man was never meant to have.

Is this to be the rest of his life? Max doesn’t know.

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Steel trudges through vents and crawlspaces. Dodging cameras and guards alike, accumulating quite the cobweb collection in the process. You’d think a billionaire corporation would have to foresight to not pump such dirty air through their buildings, but as Steel had found, they clearly didn’t.

Still they pressed on, for their own sake, but mostly for Max’s. They could feel the boy losing any will to fight. Emotionally and physically, Max was swiftly deteriorating.

Right along with Steel’s own condition.

For what little memory Steel contained within their memory banks, they had never known a greater fear than they felt right now. Ultralinks were intrinsically selfish creatures. Made to revolve around themselves, and their maker, and nothing else.

Nothing else mattered more than their own selves.

But Steel’s terror, and rage lived only for Max’s sake. Steel lived only for Max’s sake, and has from the very moment of Bonding. Max was their’s, and they were Max’s. This is how things would be for as long as they both lived.

Even if that only stretched as far as today.

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“That one blast of Turbo energy has sustained me for 15 years! It has given me power unimaginable! But nothing lasts forever…” His grandstanding paces halt, and the man returns to Max’s side. Hands drape Max’s suit, draining and draining.

“But it is of no matter. For now I have you. An indefinite supply of the rarest energy source in the universe. Once I breach that suit of yours, keeping you alive and generating energy for however long I want it will be child’s play. Better get cozy, man of steel, because you're my new best friend!”

“Given what happened to your last best friend, I don’t really think I feel like taking on the position.” It is a thought Max didn’t quite realize he’d voiced until his captor responded.

“It is because of him that I’ve become the man I am today! In a deliciously ironic way, I owe it all to Jim Mcgrath.”

Another surge of blue bursts out of him, and another beep signals his Takion energy has completely restored.

Max is begging before he makes the conscious decision to do so. “Please please please.” He cries, the words pour out of his mouth before he could stop them.

He’d wanted to stand strong. To keep a firm front like he’d had against Forge, but that had been who knows how many drains ago. Max couldn’t take it.

“Please stop. Don’t, please, I’ll do anything!” He pleads. But Max has nothing to give, to offer. Nothing but energy.

His answer is the deep velvet chuckles as the man laughs at him. “Your Turbo levels have recharged.” He states, heavy and pleased. “It seems to happen faster and faster, adjusting to the consumption. All the better for me, of course.”

The man takes more this time, reaching deeper within Max, and yanking it out. His hands press against Max’s chest, pushing so hard the Steel suit threatens to cave in. His bones creaking as they threatened to cave with it.

Max is hit with a mental image of his organs spilling out of his stomach. The man's hands pulling away with his innards. Max’s life leaving with them as his blood pools and pools on the ground around him, rising until he chokes on it. Until he drowns.

Max will burn like this forever. Was there even a time that existed before? There is only pain, and the hazy liminal spaces in between.

It hadn’t even been long. It couldn’t have been that long. But the time is still here, and also an eternity. Max had no way of knowing how long he’d be trapped here, or how long it’d already been.

“Let’s do this again, shall we? Say, in an hour?” If that, with the rate it was coming.

Dying would be better than this.

There’s a scrape coming somewhere. A metallic scratching that tickles in the back of Max’s head. The corner of his mind dedicated to only Steel.

‘Please.’ He calls. ‘Please.”

It grows closer, demanding Max stay awake and aware. Ready. His head perks up, taking all of his strength to do even that. His eyes cast around the room, looking for a sign of what was to come.

His kidnapper can’t seem to hear it but it’s loud, so loud, in Max’s head. Nails on a chalkboard wishes its sound could pierce so deep into someone’s ears. He didn’t think he could hurt worse than he already had, but somehow it builds on the pressure already there, weighing him down.

But something told him to be ready, so Max pulled everything in him together, for one final stand.

If only he knew what that final stand would entail.

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Steel bursts through the vent grating, covered in sludge and other questionable substances. Their arms at the ready.

“Release the boy!” They yell, voice whirring and static with the volume they projected. Big and booming through the large room they’d arrived in.

If they had a heart, it’d stop beating at the sight of Max. A sea of wires had almost encased the boy at the knees up, piling up on the floor in a tidal wave of thick cable, pumping and draining the suit in turn.

Steel’s suit, that they’d designed to fit and protect every inch of Max’s body, now thinned out from the cannibalization of parts and resources. The suit was Steel, and it had failed Max.

It wasn’t enough. Steel wasn't enough. But they were here and it had to count for something.

“Steel?” Max said, straining against his entombment.

He was so young. Logically, Steel had known that from the beginning. Taken that into they’re millions of calculations about Max and their Bond since it’d occurred. But it hadn’t hit Steel just how young the child really was until now.

So small, and scared. How could Steel ever be enough of a wall between him and the world?

They duck around beams blasting from the juggernaut, arms that were too long, and stronger still. Steel’s scanned showed and unsettled meld of organic flesh and blood, mashed together with oiling fuels, and a minerals not found on this planet.

And running through artificial veins ran an energy not unlike Max’s own. But molten red where Max’s ran a magnetic blue. It perverted the light of Max’s energy, radiating a hunger that could never be sated.

Always starved, and never full. A monster of his own making.

All the electric and wiring running through the demented workshop of nightmares was a massive safety hazard, and one Steel took advantage of. Flicking of the sludge into the man’s eyes, Steel redirected to a current of lightning running through the floor.

They slashed it, dragging it up and lodging it into one of the flexible alloy joints in the man’s suit, igniting one of the fuel pockets lurking within. Fire blazes through the room, catching on anything flammable.

The sparks catch on the cables surrounding Max, all of them burning at once. A ticking bomb, following the wick to the child Steel was now responsible for.

Steel sails through the air, cutting through the connective wire, but there was too much, and Steel was too slow.

Spinning through in a dizzying haze, Steel releases a final spray of energy in every direction, landing perfectly against Max’s chest.

Why put out the fire when Steel could fan the flames instead?

Steel settles into Max, their minds finding the home in each other that they’d both missed. That they’d needed.

Now they were together, one once more, and the second Steel connected with the boy’s chest, they immediately got to work blocking pain receptors, regulating Max’s temperature and muffling all surrounding noises and textures, automatically accounting for Max’s sensitivities.

It wouldn’t fix anything, not really. But to borrow the human term, they’d plastered the dam with duct tape, and right now, that was the best Steel could do until they were somewhere safe enough to recover.

Barely registering their own energy being refilled in the process. They didn’t have the time too, the man had already recovered by now, and they had to move.

“Miles Dredd.” Max whispers through their shared mental space. All of Max’s knowledge and observations filtered through, over shadowed by force of his memories spilling over as he’s unable to separate thoughts from feeling.

The wounds too fresh. Bleeding blood and acid, physically and mentally.

Organs Steel didn’t even have ached with the uncomfortable awareness of their position in a phantom body belonging to the boy they resided in.

Steel reinforced the dampeners.

“A Turbo powered boy, and a functional Ultralink.” The man is back up, his voice rich and endlessly pleased. “Must be my lucky day.”

He paces towards them, grace traded out for power, each step fast and thundering. The definition of a predator on the hunt.

And Steel wasn’t about to allow them to be prey.

They shifted together into fight mode. Dodging and spinning as they reached for the stars, blasting a hole into the roof above. As they soared higher and higher, smoke and heatwaves soaring with them as their shared arms came up to the serene light of a full moon.

They almost made it. Steel could taste the desert air through Max’s mouth, still so heavy despite the nighttime chill. They felt Max retreating into the suit. Almost switching places in the ouroboros made up of their combined personalities, both soothing each other’s pain.

And then there was a hand on Max’s ankle, and a weight, hundreds and hundred of pounds of metal and muscle shackling the two of them as they were dragged further and further into the viperous light of the raging fire they’d attempted to leave behind.

“Maybe I wasn’t clear.” Dredd said, as inch by inch, they dropped. “You are never leaving this place.”

He scales Max’s body, until he has a grip on Max’s shoulder, using the other hand to latch onto his chest.

Pulling and prying, he tears into Steel. Draining as he works to separate them, tying up Steel’s attention in blocking the flow of energy being sucked out of Max, and by proxy, Steel. It weakens both of them.

They sink, and as they do, Steel makes a decision.

They’d said they were tied to Max for the rest of their lifetime, not Max’s. He still had a chance, even if it wasn’t a great one.

Steel locks Max in flight mode, quietly sealing away their mind and intention from the boy Steel had come to save. And save they would.

Even if it killed them.

“Punch it, Max! Give it all you’ve got.” Steel poured as much of themself into the suit as they could spare, hoping that the protections Max would buy him even a little time.

Max follows Steel’s order, doing everything he could to get away, get them both away. But Steel was a being of logic, and Max was not. The child wouldn’t understand, and Steel accepted that. As long as Max made it out.

Steel blocks the energy leaving the boy, preventing it from getting to Dredd even if he loses it entirely. Max makes one final push, and as he does, Steel leaves their place in Max’s chest.

Dredd had put all his weight and effort into pulling them apart, that he wasn’t prepared for the sudden give. It was a simple matter for the newly refreshed Steel to blast Dredd’s remaining grip, and when Dredd falls, so does Steel.

They look up, watching on as Max gets away, rocketing into the sky with nothing holding him down. Steel did that. Both of them had. Max was going to make it. He had to.

And as for Steel? They’d slept for over a decade, what was the harm in sleeping a little more?

They wait, perhaps stupidly, until Max is completely out of sight, before pulling themself inwards into the same ball Max had first seen them in.

As their monitors shut down, and their processing begins to slow, Steel thinks of the boy they’d been Bonded to for their entire known life, and feels a curling purr of satisfaction running through their sleepy systems.

“You were a boy worth knowing.” They send over the closing echoes of their connection.

And with that, Steel’s story ended like it started. With an endless sleep. With the dying embers of drifting thought, Steel hopes their dreams are a reel of their limited memory banks, taking Steel through the moments they’d had over and over for however long Steel has left.

Steel’s body becomes cold and lifeless as their engine shuts down for good. Leaving Dredd alone with an empty husk of compressed metal.

All the easier to hook up to his machines.

An Ultralink had always been Dredd’s intended target, after all. The boy was an unexpected boon. One Dredd didn’t intend to let go so easily.

But for now, drunk off the high of the boy’s unlimited power stores put Dredd in a rather indulgent mood. And if the two were bonded, well then all Dredd had to do was wait for the mindless drone to walk back in on his own two feet.

And until then, Dredd’s original plan would commence. By the time the boy circled back, Dredd would be ready. Along with his army of cybernetic led robots.

Dredd looks upon his ruined lab and laughs. Feeling truly alive for the first time in 15 years, why should he remain cooped up in such a shabby lab, anyway?

No, Dredd would rebuild. Bigger and better than ever. Already he could feel the itch in his teeth, craving more of that sweet sweet energy. But soon enough Dredd would be the sole owner of not only one but 2 sources of the rarest energy in existence. He’d be drowning it in.

Dredd couldn’t wait.

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Max flew through the air, spinning in uncontrollable circles as he tumbled over and over himself. Without Steel’s guidance, Max was lost to the abyss of the night.

All colors, or grasp of the terrain he was hurtling towards was lost to the speed Max found himself in, struggling to rein in his powers now that he was alone with them.

Oh god, Max was really alone this time.

He’d been alone before, but that was different, because Max hadn’t the space or energy to think of anything beyond the pain. The searing, punching pain that still clung to his bones, and stole the oxygen from his lungs and-

Max was plummeting face first into a canyon.

Seconds before impact, too close to impact, a sickly green laser surrounds him, stopping Max in place. With no to slow him down, ease him off the breakneck speed at which he’d been going, that served as an impact all the same.

The aftershocks buzzed through his blood, and settled in his stomach. Max was going to be sick.

He’s reeled back into a ship, the same one that had picked up Steel and him the first time, Max hysterically notes as he reads the number on the side, just in time to vomit all over the shiny sleek flooring of a multi million dollar investment.

All that came out was bile, and only a little at that, but even so Max couldn’t stop heaving. It rocked his whole body, seizing all of his muscles as he choked in jagged breaths.

It was several long minutes before Max was able to process anything about his surroundings. Slowly becoming aware of a hand rubbing circles into his back. He jerked away from the foreign touch as soon as Max registered it, backing himself into a corner in his panic.

It was a woman decked out in head to do armor. Monochromes greys and glowing yellow. Not neon N-Tek, or the crimson of Dredd. Someone else entirely.

And an unknown entity was a threat.

Power pooled into his hands. Max thinks of Steel. What they would do, how they would help, and Max thinks of the moment they met.

A field of liquid blues. A raging storm at which Steel had brought Max into the epicenter. Allowing him the space to think, and the safety of which to do so.

Turbo energy flows out, not to strike, but to shield. Covering his sight and his senses in the cyan’s that made up Steel’s monitors. Their blasts of power, matching that of Max’s. He just needed to think, for just a fucking minute without anyone breathing down his neck.

He breathes. Forcing the acidic air to burn down his throat in long, deep breaths.

Max was fine. He was going to be fine. All he had to do was breathe like Steel had coached him in just a few days ago. He wasn’t dying, he wasn’t sick. Max was just having a bad moment against the kitchen counter, and with Steel’s help he was going to be just fine.

In and out. Long and deep. The whirring hums that had floated through his head for a week now, conjuring in his mind at the thought of them. Steel had run through his song collection. Trying out tunes and beats.

Testing out which ones came smooth, and those that came rough. Always calculating which combinations put him at ease. What Steel could do to make Max feel safe. With them and the Bond they shared.

Steel hadn’t really told him what it meant, being Bonded. Max hadn’t asked.

But now he knows. Max had thought, during each round of torture, that he was being hollowed out. Thoughts and memories being stolen with each ounce of energy that left his body.

And that had been a pain like nothing else. One Max couldn’t ever go through again. He knows he wouldn’t make it. That he wouldn’t want to.

But that had been hell. Vitriolic heat, burning through Max on an atomic level, burning grains of his being that Max would be realizing the loss of for months to come. Even with what Steel had done, granting Max a degree of separation, he knew.

Now, Max felt… cold. Colorless. The marrow of his bones had vanished, leaving them brittle and weak. Before, the room in his head designated for Steel had been muffled, quiet. But now it was just gone.

Max really was alone this time. For the first time in his life, he was truly alone. And if he didn’t get Steel back, he knew this ache would follow him forever.

Whether he stayed and fought and it was too late for Steel already, or ran and hid, leaving his other injuries behind, Steel’s loss would remain a cloud over him. Haunting him.

And Max wouldn’t have it any other way. There was no going back for him, not after this and not after Steel. Together, they had both been irrevocably changed by each other.

He’d give almost anything to not be in the pain he is now, knowing it’d only get worse from here on out when Max could feel it in full. But that being said, Max would give anything to get Steel back. Even knowing he was risking going back.

It was a trade off he could live with.

Now that Max has come to that decision, what’s left is to figure out what to do about it.

His power levels were still shaky, Max’s grip tenuous. He was running out of time before he’d have to answer to the others. Whoever they happened to be.

So, here’s the facts. Steel would think it through, and in their absence, Max had to pull it together enough to do it himself.

Max was attacked by a fire monster. Immediately after coming ‘online’ so to speak. The minute Max separated from Steel- No. Not just separated. He’d been apart from Steel numerous times in the past week or so.

At home, at school. Off and on at N-Tek. It wasn’t when they were just disconnected, but when they were a certain distance apart from each other. And they’d tracked his energy through the walls of N-Tek.

He wasn’t safe there, but Max knew that already.

Exposed to this strange and mysterious energy as a toddler, that had been cooking in his DNA since. His uncle had known, prepared the inevitability even. But what of his mother?

The moves, the fear. The trail of incidents stemming back as far as he could remember, and now Miles Dredd, who had not only been involved in the initial accident, but had caused it.

All of it was connected. The facts spiraled in on each other, but pieces were still missing. Max just wasn’t smart enough to put it all together on his own. At least, not without additional information.

A plan of attack was forming in Max’s mind. Just the barest bones of one, but it was something, and that was all he had.

He could do this. For Steel, and himself.

The blue recedes back into him leaving Max feeling jittery and cold. The burgeoning pain was barely being held at bay now the wall thinning by the minute. Max had to be fast.

Standing in front of him was his mother, and his uncle. Berto stood by the paneled wall of screens, clearly attempting to pretend he was one with them, that he definitely wasn’t listening. Berto failed.

Molly hovered, just outside the radius of where the field had fallen, and she looked afraid to approach now that it was gone. Forge stood at her back. He kept trying to skirt around his sister, looking stern, angry. Her withered glares sent him back to his place every time.

A sense of faux calm washes over him. A distance between him and what was happening. Max would make sure to make use of it while it lasted.

“Mom.” Max starts, looking her dead in the eye and daring her to lie to him. “Last week, Turbo energy started to leak out of me uncontrollably. Forge took me to N-Tek and locked me in this… artificial cave. He was going to leave me in there. Were you a part of this?”

Molly’s face flits through every emotion in the book. Confusion. Fear. Heartbreak. Anger. Before settling on a white hot rage, causing her to whip around as she winds her arm back, and punches Forge straight in the face.

“What the fuck did you do to my son?!” Molly seethes. Forge was dropped with the first blow, but it seems that Max’s mother isn’t above kicking a man while he’s down.

But this was neither the time nor place, and Max couldn’t even muster up the satisfaction at seeing his mother defend him.

His hand clangs against the metal walls, hard and loud. “Great.” His hands clap together. “Now that we’ve established that, move on. The next item on the agenda is titled ‘Build a better escape plan, where do we go from here?’”

The assembled group looks at him in bewildered confusion. “You’re going to the hospital, young man. Right now!” Molly scolds. Nice, but ultimately unhelpful.

“I”m not doing anything without Steel.” Finally, Max looks at Forge. Really looks at him for the first time since that day he’d been left in that wretched room.

“You told me that Miles Dredd had died along with my father in an accident. Were you lying to me then.”

Forge is standing now. Looking to Berto with shifty eyes. “What’re you-?”

Max’s hand clangs against the wall again, this time accompanied by a bolt of brilliant blue. “Answer the question or I take this plane down.”

“But, that can’t be! Miles died with your father!”

He thinks back to all those times when electrons died in his hands. A fizzle and a pop before going dark. The phones, the motorcycles. Everything he hadn’t put together before Steel. Max thinks about it, and channels that to the best of his ability.

Blue sparks out of him, it envelopes the plane whole. It starts to rock. The screens go dark one by one.

Not even Max knows if it's a bluff.

“Try again.” Max says, for the last time.

Forge’s lips purse, now it's his turn to avoid Max. “Miles Dredd died 15 years ago. Why on earth would I lie to you about that?”

Max laughs. Bitter and humorless. “Because I just got back from his torture chamber where he bragged about murdering my dad, and fusing with the equipment used to do it.”

He watches their expressions. Noting their reactions to him and each other. All would be relayed to Steel later. Assuming Steel was still alive to tell.

“Now, how will we rescue Steel?”

But a concrete plan to infiltrate the building proved unnecessary as the skyscraper that made up THI transformed. Every monitor on the wall lit up with blaring warning signs, before switching over to live feed.

Panels pushing out on hinged plates, reconfiguring themselves to open the roof, revealing some sort of pronged weapon.

Different pieces of different floors were exposed to view, revealing a vine of pieces climbing their way up the tower to connect to the crown. Blood red cables bridge the gap between each section, pulsing every few seconds.

Red tractor beams branch out, hurling themselves down to street level. They wrap around civilians in the vicinity, carrying them up and pinning them to the empty spaces on the building's wall.

The lasers hold them there until the cables snake down, mummifying their victims. Once the process is complete, the wiring starts to throb. Pulsing and pulsing, as it begins to consume those trapped in their rubber death cocoons.

Each screen on the wall of monitors shows a different person being snatched off the ground.

“It’s eating them.” Max breaths, horrified.

Every muscle in his body aches with sympathy, having first hand experience with the torture they must be going through.

“We need to help them.” Max says. “We need to help Steel.”

“We will, kid. But first we need to know what we’re dealing with.” He’s given up focus on Max entirely, standing at Berto’s shoulders as the man furiously types into a holographic keyboard.

“Okay.” Berto starts, taking over every screen at once to project his findings. “I have some news, but you aren’t going to like it.”

Schematics, blue prints, and countless data streams fill the newfound space. “The device seems to be an Ultralink energy based catalyst. It’s triggering a fissile reaction with the human body that’s generating a tiny fraction of Takion energy.”

Max gags, but there’s nothing left to come up. “He’s harvesting them.”

“Why aren’t we affected?” Forge demands.

"Because all of our gear is an N-Tek issue.” Berto explains. “The device uses THI technology as a targeting system. Anyone with THI devices are at risk. Dredd must have been planning this for years.”

“So Dredd is going to squeeze the life out of every last person in Copper Canyon for his next fix of Turbo energy.” Forge says, grimly staring at the information before him.

“With your buddy Steel making it all possible.” Berto confirms.

“This isn’t their fault!” Max exclaims.

Molly lays a hand on his shoulder. “We know, honey.”

Max shakes it off. “Steel isn’t even awake!”

That gives pause to every person in the room. “What do you mean, they aren’t awake?” Berto asks with caution.

“Just what I said. When we were separated, Steel shut themselves down. They’re out of commission. Steel doesn’t even know they’re being used like this.”

Max keeps how they were separated to himself. Some small possessive part of him wanted to keep Steel’s sacrifice, Steel’s words, just for him. Steel had given up everything for him, and he wasn’t ready or willing to talk about what meant yet, if ever.

The adults in the room share a meaningful look, but it’s Molly that makes an appeal to Max. “Nobody here blames Steel, love. That’s not what Berto was trying to say. Right, Berto?”

“Right!” Berto hastily assures. “I just meant that saving Steel is our priority, because if they're back with you, the whole machine will fall apart.”

Max squints at everyone in the room, trying to tell if Berto means it, but his brain is already going scrambled again. “Fine…” He eventually says, temporarily mollified. “How’re we going to do that?”

“At this point there’s nothing to do but walk through the front door.” Forge says. “There’s no time for an infiltration, and we can’t risk any sort of real assault with their victims making up a human shield.”

“Max.” Molly says. “This means they’ll be waiting for us. For you. Those people only produce an infinitestinal amount of the Turbo energy that you do, and only once before it kills them. Dredd will do anything to get his hands back on you, and keep you this time. If you're going to go in with the attack, I need you to understand what that means.”

He stops to think, even though he’d long since made his decision. Thinking of Dredd towering over him, and spending the rest of his life as a pinned butterfly in a box. Of what it would do to him physically and mentally.

But Max would risk it for Steel, just as Steel had for him. This was their only chance. And even besides that, Max still wasn’t sure how far his trust in N-Tek went, whatever data Dredd had pulled from him and his suit couldn’t be allowed to exist for much longer.

Not if Max and Steel ever wanted to have a chance to be safe ever again after this.

“I understand. And I’m going.”

Max would probably spend the rest of his life recovering from this as it was, and there was no longer any point to living it without Steel.

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They pulled up to N-Tek in armored tanks, a near army of people and robots along with them. Several helicopters stormed the streets above them, flying in circles around THI, at the ready for when it’d be safe to strike.

Everyone was decked out in armor and weaponry, testing their guns, and securing their armor. Molly presses a gun into Max’s hands. A pistol against everyone’s heavy automatic numbers. Everything about it was different from the others.

Max pretends not to notice.

Every door and window is blocked on their approach. Heavy shutters, thick layers of titanium falling down and hooking under the original opening.

Forge places a row of grenade looking objects lining the front door. He steps back, Jefferson and Cat herding the group further away as Forge flips a switch and the whole thing blows.

Interestingly enough, it was only that specific door that went.

Opening now secured, they charged in at once. Berto’s robot first, then Forge’s agents, and finally Molly and Max followed at the tail end of the procession.

They were greeted with a dozen turrets lining the high ceiling of the lobby. It took out several of the front liners before they took them out. A combination of gunfire and Max’s powers working in tandem to destroy them for good.

But that was only the first way, and an army of synthetic soldiers came out of the woodworks as soon as the last turret was taken out of commission.

Everyone jumped behind behemoth pillars.. Covering themselves as they took turns trading fire throughout the hall. None of the damage they inflicted managed to so much as dent the walls. It was a veritable fortress.

At least that meant a stray bullet wouldn’t hit any of the people strapped to the walls outside.

It was a coordinated attack. Everyone dancing to steps Max had not been taught, at the N-Tek agents separated into segmented formations. A practiced strategy of attack that left Max no openings to anything other than provide a spray as needed.

He searched for an opening, conserving his Turbo energy until it came. The fight did little other than signalling to Max that he needed firearm training once this was all said and done.

The group took turns baiting the robots with one person, and having another attack. Several agents were launched up onto ledges playing sniper. It was with a practised precision that had them mowing through their opponents.

But for any enemy they dropped, 3 more came to take their place. It was a war of endurance, and an unlimited army of battery powered beings would outlast humans every time.

They were quickly overwhelmed by numbers. The spacious lobby now packed to the brim with fighters. There was no hanging back anymore as they were surrounding, and Max now fought back to back with his mother.

Together they took out robot after robot. Max tore them apart, strength and agility enhanced by Turbo energy fueling his movements. But his control was anything other than firm, and when Max pushes at an electronic based gun, his powers clash with the electric work, exploding it and everything else within a five foot radius.

The blast throws Max back towards the exit. Molly slides around metal legs after him, tossing grenades as she goes.

“I need to get to Steel, mom. We can stop this.” He entreats. Looking up at his mother, and begging her to help him.

Molly gives in, pressing him in with a quick hug, tight against his creaking bones, before pushing him away. “Go.” She says. “I’ll cover you.”

She whistles, sharp and loud. It signals something to the others, as they all work to clear Max's path.

A mix of bombs and grapples come into play, as they jerk their foes away, and muscle through them to back them up against the walls. They were giving Max the opportunity he needed.

He doesn’t let it go to waste.

Max makes a run for it. Dodging and weaving through the robots like he had with Steel just 2 days ago, he gets to the door they came out of. Sliding through as it opens to let another robot through, Max cuts its fuel line and leaves it jamming the door.

Then he’s on the move. Shouldering his way past a maze of machines not yet active. It was dark and cramped. A million robots, and the only glow to light his way were the charging ports attached to each one of them.

Electric blue stretches out around him as Max bursts the technology as much as he could as he went. Max would ease the burden of those he’d left behind however he was able.

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In the wake of Max’s absence, the kid gloves came off. For both sides of the fight, it appeared, as the Elementors only showed their ugly mugs after Max was out of the vicinity.

They make quick work of the remaining bots, but Molly is distracted and it shows as her fighting lags. Even still, she’d honed her body and skill over decades of hard work. Even with her thoughts consumed by her haunted son, Molly still out performed the N-Tek agents by a large margin.

It is mere moments after the final hunk of metal is dispatched, just long enough for Molly to turn towards the door Max had disappeared behind when it happens.

A travelling rumble, harder and louder than the fiercest of Earth’s storms comes towards them at the speed of light, erupting through the ground in an avalanche of dirt and debris creating a cloud cover shielding it’s arrival.

All are thrown back by the Elementors' arrival. Even more of the flooring caved in through the tunnels it’d left on the way. Hot on its heels was the Fire Elementor, smoke blocking their sightlines even more.

They’re hard pressed to fight against both Elementors in such closed quarters. The previously large arena quickly becomes cramped as N-Tek and Molly grapple with the Elementor’s combined mass filling out the area.

But it’s the limited mobility that becomes their undoing.

There’s a whining screech sailing through the air, of grenades being shot from their launcher to announce Berto joining the fray.

From the safety of his remote controlled killing machines, of course.

A touch dramatic for Molly’s taste, but if it works, it works, and Berto’s inventions have never failed them before. The bombs are sticky, attaching themselves to the raw materials making up their forms. The scattered pieces only loosely held together by the base form of their core Ultralinks.

The bombs go off one at a time, breaking off the Rock Elementor's ridged pieces by the boulder. The effects were even more catastrophic for the Fire Elementor. Flames snuff out, as volcanic ash erupts and rains over the room.

But the fight isn’t over yet.

Seeing the threat Berto’s proxy makes up, it didn’t take long for them to put him permanently out of commission. But it gave them the opening they needed.

“Aim for the diamond in their foreheads! It’s their achilles heel!” Forge shouts.

Molly and Cat share a look, and both scale the awnings on either side of the room. Molly was the best trickshot in N-Tek history. And as for Cat? Cat had learned from the best.

Forge gets in close to the Rock Elementor, drawing it off while the agents still standing send off a cascade of laser bullets into the still recharging fire elementor to prevent it from regaining its footing.

Both attacks gave Molly and Cat the time they needed to get into position. Locked and loaded, they fired in unison. Nailing the crystalline center pieces, the artificial bodies fall apart. Their pieces were dumped back into the hole they’d created, with several more bombs through after them for good measure.

Molly wished the fight had been harder, lasted longer, because now that it was over and done with, all of the ground team was trapped in a waiting game.

There was nothing she could do but trust in her son. And she did, Molly trusted her son more than herself, but against these odds, there was nothing that could curb her worry in the fate of Max.

“If only you could see him now, Jim. If only…” It’s a useless utterance, but one that had left Molly’s lips more and more as Max had grown, taking on the visage of her dead husband more every day.

Jim would be proud of him, she knew. But Molly was also more than aware that she’d failed. As a mother and a wife, Molly had failed.

And win or lose the day, Molly would spend her remaining lifespan atoning for that.

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Finally, Max gets through the room, and into another large corridor. There’s an elevator in the corner, but not a usual one. This was bigger, and more open. Probably to move heavy parts and machinery.

It’s already on the move by the time Max gets to it. He jumps back as it comes level with his floor, easing away from whoever was on it.

Max was grateful that the Steel suit allowed him to summon the helmet at will, because Max couldn’t hide his surprise at the sight of the lanky man coming down to meet him.

He was tall and skinny, all limbs. The man had slicked back hair, and was wearing a suit clearly more expensive than anything Max had ever owned. Not what Max would have expected in an enemy.

He wonders where this man falls in the line of defense.

“Ah, company. How delightful. My name is Jason Naught.” He says, spreading his arms out. “Can I get you anything? Would you like to use the executive washroom?”

Max stares at him, dumbfounded. “Does everyone working in this company have a screw loose?”

He laughs, warbled and pitchy. “I assure you, I am as sound of mind and body as you. Better, in fact!”

Max watches on in horror as the man’s skin cracks in a million spiderwebbed pieces across his body. His limbs elongate, and his eyes go white. Skin turns an ashy grey before flaking off in chunks as his body bulks out.

Naught’s clothes tear off as metal, far too much metal, grows out of him. Each concentric layer thinner than the last, but still too strong despite that. The final form is of a synthetic monster. Hollow metal. There was so much space for organs or bones, not with this lurking inside of Naught’s fake body.

He’d given up anything that made him human, and traded it out for everything artificial.

And if it's mechanically based, then Max could destroy it all the rest.

“Did you really think this would be that easy?” Naught asks, and Max ducks around iron arms to reach the platform. He slams the up button as the monster chases behind.

The elevator rises slowly, and it's a fight against both his pain and balance to stay on his fight. There’s barely enough room for the both of them, and Max is already so, so tired. Their fight is clumsy and awkward.

The seconds tick down in Max’s mind as he struggles to endure, and keep Naught on his toes.

They twist round and round each, both landing blows that have little effect, no room to gain momentum in such close quarters. Neither can even make off a shot without risking it blowing up in their faces.

And the whole time those eyes stare back at Max. Nothing about Naught is natural, not anymore. But there’s something about the eyes in particular that unnerves Max. It sends a deep, primal part of him into a tizzy.

It says he needs to run.

Finally they’re high enough, or maybe Max has reached the end of what he could take. He pushes in, and folds his arms around the man’s chest, hoping his heart if he still had one, and engine if not, was there.

It’s almost like a hug, if Naught hadn’t been so big that even Max’s full armspan couldn’t fit even a quarter of the way around.

Then he ignites. It’s the opposite of what Dredd had done to him, he pushes instead of pulls. Max pours Turbo energy into the man's core, flooding into his system and overloading it. He shorts out mechanical bits, and cuts the energy supply.

Naught goes cold, and limp, and tumbles off the platform.

Max chases him to the edge, almost over the side, as he watches the man fall. Naught lands on his back, weight crashing into the flood, unable to take the impact as a crater forms around him.

He watches and he waits. Still going up, his gaze remains fixed, until, after being still for far too long, Naught takes a breath.

An unexpected relief settles inside Max’s chest. He didn’t kill anyone. In all of this, the only person Max had wished death upon had been himself. It hadn’t even occurred to him as being a possibility for anyone else too.

For Max to do it himself.

And now, confronted with the realization that Max is capable of that kind of harm tightens his chest, and tugs at his stomach. Max almost killed someone. He’d done that, and it was something Max had done on purpose.

He just, Max didn’t think about what it’d mean. Overloading the circuits like that was just supposed to stun the man. But his whole being relied on the electrical current, and Max had turned them off.

A calculated attack.

He didn’t realize he’d stopped breathing, until suddenly, Max is gasping for air. Filling his lungs takes over his thoughts and he heaves his inhales, and choked on the exhale. And still he eyes remain on the puffs on Naught’s too cold breaths hitting the hot air of the facility.

Until the platform settles at the new floor, the top of THI tower, and Max’s sightline is cut off.

He falls to his knees. Trying and failing to regulate his breathing. He couldn’t turn back now. Didn’t even want to, not really. But the panic was taking over his body, and the final bit of the mental wall still standing finally fell, and the only thing Max could do was not curl up into a body.

Shutting down like Steel had.

But it was Steel’s connection pulling at him. They were close, Max could feel it. And that had to be enough of a reason to pull himself together one final time.

Literally and figuratively speaking.

One more push. And he’d have Steel back, or Max would have nothing ever again. Either way, this would be the end. He could, Max could do this. He was going to make it.

Is what he told himself, at least. But that didn’t stop the tears falling down his face, and collecting at his color bone. Unable to go down any further in the skin tight suit.

The truth was, Max was scared. There were no other options, Max knew that. Even if he wanted to leave Steel behind, and he’d never, Max would never be able to learn how to get a grasp on his powers.

Even with how depleted it’d been by Dredd, over and over, and over again, Max’s grip on it was already seeming beyond his control. Even as far from full strength as he was, it was already seeping through the cracks of Steel suit.

For all Max knew, it’d be right back into the box Forge had put him in. Countless would be lost for as long as Steel remained in Dredd’s possession, and Max would be one of them.

He knew that. But still, Max couldn’t stop the tremble of his hands or the hitch of his breath. Max was only 16. That was barely anything in the grand scheme of things.

The man behind the door could kill him. He’d already killed Max’s father. But he’d do worse than that, he’d keep Max alive. Bleeding him dry, and every time he’d take more, and more.

Dredd would never be satisfied. Always hungry, and never full, Max had said. And a plan he’d spent over a decade formulating.

What capability did Max have that could possibly combat that?

But he couldn’t stay here any longer, or Max would remain frozen until Dredd came out to find him. And then it’d simply be easy pickings. There was nothing else to do but go in.

Max stands, taking every scrap of willpower he has left to do so. The door is a monolith. Dark and imposing as it hands over him, casting the hall into shadow. For as long as Max stands against it, he’s shaded from the fluorescent lights that bathe every other inch of the building in nauseating artificial brightness.

He confronts it with his eyes closed. Pushing one of the heavy double doors in the forced darkness Max enforces on himself. It's the only way he’ll get anywhere.

His eyes closed means that the smell hits him before anything else. Noxious fumes hang through the tower top like rolling fog. Thick and heady, it clogs the air in an incense like burning bleach and hot oil.

Max gags on it, but he doesn’t stop. Stepping further into the room, and stretching out electric blues, filling out a map of the area so he still doesn’t have to see. But when energy bounced off Steel’s form, Max’s eyes opened automatically.

Dredd is on a stage of his own making, the ceiling is opened up, and Dredd stands on a raised podium at the dead center. All of the bloody tendrils of energy both come out of him, and travel back into him. He has only grown bigger in their time apart.

His attention is focused solely on soaking up the power flooding through his lifeblood, and replacing it with something that had never been Dredd’s to take.

The man didn’t even notice Max’s entrance. Dredd was consumed by the only thing that mattered to him: himself.

Maybe, just maybe, if Max was fast enough, he could grab Steel and be gone before Dredd even knows what’s happened.

The blue is radiating off of him now. He couldn’t stop it from covering him like another skin,

When Max reached for Steel, they awakened at his touch. Unfurling from the ball they’d curled into. Steel’s eye blinks up at him as they process the situation. Max welcomes their presence in the back of his mind.

“Max.” They say, ire bleeding into their tone. “Did I not, just recently, risk my life getting you out of here?”

Against all rationality, Max laughs. It was hoarse and strangled, and more than a touch hysterical as Max says, “Well, now we’re then, huh?”

Max will have to ask later how they manage to raise an eye brow with only one projected eye. He tries to remove Steel from their cases, but his hand is blocked.

“It’s shielded.” Steel dryly informs him.

He laughs again, as delighted as he is terrified. “Yes. Thank you, Contraption Obvious, I hadn’t noticed.”

He scans the table Steel is laid out on, running his hands over the sides, and underneath for a switch, or button, or power source. Anything that could free them both. But Dredd had picked up on Max’s disturbance.

“Max, look out!” By the time Steel alerted Max to the movement, it was already too late.

Dredd flies across the room with an unnatural speed given the weight and size of his armored body. He grabs Max by the neck, picking him up and bashing him against a wall. His ankle catches on the lip of a stray desk, twisting his knee.

It pops out of the socket, soreness climbing up and down his leg to the tune of every one of his joints hip down crackling. Once again, his lungs are punched empty at the impact. He struggles to lift his head up from the wall.

Is he still pinned to that board? Did Steel actually come for him, Max wonders.

Max looks up just in time for Dredd to punch him in the face. “Did you miss me?” He asks, grabbing Max by the helmet and slamming him back into the ground.

He’s thrown around, back and forth and up and down, and Max is so dizzy, so tired, but when he’s tossed at the table containing Steel, he automatically follows the order screamed into his head.

“Max! The switch!” He can’t see it, he never could. But the impression in his head tells him to reach left, and he does without a second thought. It’s a hatched switch, and Max’s hand burns blue as he melts it clean off, pulling the switch as he’s dragged away.

The machinery powers down with a whir from it, and a roar from Dredd as he drops Max entirely.

Steel, newly released from their prison, shoots a beam into the heart of the mass of bolts and gears. Burning the rubber casing clean off the wiring it protects, leaving the whole of it spitting sparks and catching on fuel lines.

Dredd forgets about him entirely, as he runs to the screens and engines, trying to hold the carnage together with his hands. Fitting pieces that no longer mesh against each other.

2 burned down labs in one day was very much a thing that had happened.

Max just stands there, watching Dredd's lifetime of work go up in flames with unseeing eyes, but Steel made use of the distraction to flit over to Max, and push into his chest.

An immediate warmth pulses through him, along with a distance between himself, and the debilitating pain. Between him and the situation as a whole.

Everything slows under Steel’s influence. His thoughts are far away, traveling miles before arriving at the forefront of his brain. Even then they are hazy, and disjointed. Everything that is or was, is locked behind a fragile wall.

Max pokes at it, and it throbs. Reverberating against what’s left of his head. He resolves to leave it alone.

“I’m sorry.” A voice, safe and sweet, croons over his consciousness. “Its the best I can do right now.”

And then Max is pulled back to the frontlines as Steel leaves the comforting safety of his chest. Jarring. Loud. Everything is a startling sharpness that leaves the taste of copper at the tip of his tongue. Clogging along his sense of smell.

“It’s just for a minute.” The voice, Steel’s voice he remembers, promises. ‘But I can’t do this alone, Max. It has to be both of us, together.”

He does not respond with words, for he has no more to give, but Max braces. Sending intent over the wire.

Max would do as Steel directed.

His hands come over the flexible alloy of Steel’s shoulder adjacents, and he pushes. Pushes with everything he has, and he funnels it through Steel.

It is a battle of blue against red. Of their forces joined hand in hand against Dredd’s stolen power source.

But as much as Max’s powers had leaked out of him, it was because there was simply too much to contain. And if Max’s were too much for him, they had long since passed too much for Dredd.

It had nowhere to go, trapped into the stiff and unforgiving tungsten skin of a body that hadn’t been built to hold it.

Through Steel’s sight, Max can see it gathering and gathering within Dredd, with nowhere to go, it builds. And builds. Bottling up until seeps out of gear made pours.

Unlike with Naught, who no longer contained any of his original organic parts, Steel’s scans showed Dredd’s in all they’re grisly glory.

The stomach was a withered thing. Acid and oil frothing in a radioactive mess. Other organs were coated in osmium and cobalt, having eaten away at them over time as what appeared to be lead grows into their place.

His heart was flecked with various toxins and metals, sending it through Dredd’s bloodstream. Getting worse with every pass.

The bones made up the worst of it. Hacked apart and stretched, they’d fused with the respective metals of the original draining device. Dotted pieces of chromium and titanium uneven literally the torn off pieces of bone. Growing through and around, their twining choked out the bigger pieces of bone entirely.

Trace amounts of lead had spread through Dredd’s body like cancerous cells, choking out any of the body’s natural resistances.

Whatever Dredd had done to the original machine, it was quite the toxic number.

Max read through the data filtering over their link as he dug as far into himself as he could. Using it as a focus point, to state conscious and aware and fighting, as Steel guides his power into their target.

“Let’s see if you can take it!” Steel yells for both of them, as they inject Turbo energy directly into Dredd’s nervous system.

“Oh, I can!” Dredd affirms. His hands come over Max’s, draining and draining. Max can feel his chest tightening again, but Steel writes over his panic. Soothing his distress. Max again gives into Steel’s guiding hand, taking longer this time to remember what the goal was, and how to achieve it.

Instead of fighting the consumption, the two of them lean into it. Digging deeper and deeper for more power to feed the monster in front of them. With greedy hands Dredd takes.

He’s forgotten how to do anything else. No, Dredd purposely threw that knowledge away in favor for his lust towards that which he had no right to possess. People and things Dredd had decided he should own.

But Dredd had bitten off more than he could chew, and it became more obvious with each ounce Max Steel forced through the man’s system.

First, Dredd grew larger than ever. Stretching as the energy sped up the metal's growth, forcing the man’s shape to morph as it goes.

Minutes go by, and for every one, Max retreats a little further.

Then, Dredd reaches max capacity. They’d filled him up like a balloon, but metals weren’t exactly known for their flexibility. Eventually it reaches the limits of how far it could expand. There’s no room for anything else to take.

Plates burst loose and the energy seeks an escape. The give of Dredd’s macerated joints are all weak points exploited by desperate blues. They leave and boomerang back into Max, converting back into the pure Turbo energy that had originated from him.

Dredd’s over taxed body scrambled to hold on to the whisping bits of power that he just isn’t capable of holding onto. The man had never understood Turbo energy, not really. Never had Dredd once understood just how strong the element truly was.

But even if he had, Dredd would have made the same set of choices every time. It always would have led them here, to this.

Chunks of metal melt, twisting around to fuse back in on itself, cannibalizing its own material is a confused bid to make up for the loss of power.

Together, they’re gaining ground on him, backing Dredd towards the wall as they continue to force feed him. The armor begins to shift. New jagged angles and sharp corners branching out his limbs. One his helmet begins to droop. Pockets of skin open up as the metal starts to separate, before coming back together.

It’s too much, but Max still has more. And now that the ball is rolling, Max can’t stop until Steel decides they’re finished.

Their feet lift from the floor. They rise up, leaving the decay of the lab. Higher and higher they rise up into twinkling stars of the sky. Unbidden, Max Steel morphs into flight mode. A slow climb shifting into a rocket.

They fly up, up, into the stratosphere, burning the closer they get to the Earth’s outer edge. Steel keeps them at a cool temperature. Moderating that as they moderate everything else.

A steady flow continues, beating into Dredd now as they reach the end. Of Earth, of energy, of everything.

With all that’s left, Max Steel makes one more concentrated push. Igniting what’s left in the iron pot that had replaced Dredd’s chest cavity. It sparks down his oiled lead veins, blowing up every condensed pocket it can find in its path until Dredd explodes from the inside out.

For a moment, for a singular moment, the night sky was enveloped in electric blue. It cascades outwards like a tidal wave. Blocking out stars and moon alike

The blast takes out both parties, throwing them in opposite directions, they both fall. Down into Earth’s atmosphere and beyond, gaining heat and speed the further down they fall. There’s no escape.

But Max and Steel have been reunited, and really, that’s all Max had wanted. If this was the end, so be it.

Max surrenders wholly to Steel’s embrace, and for the first time in what felt like years, he sleeps.

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The boy's energy stores were nearly depleted. Turbo energy licks at his skin, and muscle tissue, trying to convert biomass into fuel, to burn Max even brighter.

It’s all Steel can do to keep it at bay, while also having no other choice than to use Max’s powers regardless.

They hurtled down towards the ground, Max had accepted whatever may come of this, but Steel sure hadn’t.

Steel hadn’t sacrificed themself just a few hours ago to give up on the two of them now.

Every hundred feet or so, Steel pulls at Max’s energy, not pulling them to a stop, but slowing them down.

It wouldn’t be enough, but that’s all Steel had to work with.

As the city of Copper Canyon grows into more than just a speck in the distance, Steel pulls more and more. Burning through energy faster than Max can produce it. Extending them as far as they could go in a desperate play to save them both.

During their descent, Steel keeps Max in a deep, dreamless sleep. Cocooning the child as best they can. If they didn’t make it, Max would die a painless death, sheltered from the damage this would do to them.

Steel would take it for him, and they did as they fell that final bit. Layer and layer of delays, but the cement road they plummeted towards was still coming too fast for Steel to keep up with, not with how overtaxed they already were.

Even with everything Steel had done to prepare, they leave a crater in the center of the street.

They’re rushed by N-Tek personnel, and the vultures masquerading at reporters. Everyone was talking at once, questions, demands. Steel gave attention to none of them.

Focused instead on cataloguing Max’s injuries, prolific as they were.

Contusions and concussions. Broken ribs puncturing one of his lungs. Multiple joints over extended and out of their socket. Damaged throat from a mixture of stomach acid, screams, and dehydration.

A million other things adding up to give Steel the impression that they were fucked, essentially. None of this even broke the ice on the emotional damage Max would wake up to, short term and long term. Neither of them would be bouncing back from this for a good long while.

They resisted the urge to comb through Max’s memories. Given everything that had happened, Steel was sure Max would forgive the intrusion, but they didn’t want to add onto the violation that had made up his day.

Steel would wait, and while they did, they got to work.

Max Steel were loaded onto a stretcher, and packed into an N-Tek issued faux ambulance. The second they were out of sight from the public, Molly hunches over their shared body, tears gathering in the grooves of the Steel suit.

“I have him.” Steel says, all the energy they deign to spare, immediately getting back to work. They keep half an ear on their surroundings.

It wouldn’t be ideal, but if Steel had to manipulate Max’s body like a puppet in order to escape, they would. N-Tek’s motivations and plans regarding the two of them were still unclear, and until they were firmly in the safe category of Max’s brain, Steel would keep one foot out the door.

Forge comes around, laying a hand over Molly’s shoulder and gently pulling her away. “There’s nothing we can do for him, right now, we have to leave Max in Steel’s hands.”

“Solitude is greatly preferred.” Steel dryly states. Muscling Max’s mother out the way was perhaps a little cold, but Max wasn’t lying about the need for peace and quiet. Then all of their focus and attention could be on Max.

“I understand, we’ll make it happen.” Forge asserts. Steel will believe it when they see it.

But eventually, they reach the Copper Canyon base, and Max Steel are relocated to a quiet, dark room. Conveniently, it’s chock full of cameras and other means of data collection.

Steel makes short work of shorting out the electrical work of every technological based device in a 20 foot radius. Then it was time to get to work.

First, Steel uses the suit to reset all of the joints. Keeping the metal cool against the inflammation. The bones were trickier, they could keep them in place and immobile, but Steel wouldn’t be able to truly get started on the damage until Max’s Turbo output reached a baseline.

They soothe the bruises, and still Max’s instinctual twitching and flinches at his hurts being touched, even to heal. Steel manually pumped air in and out of Max’s lungs to avoid agitating the puncture.

Keeping up a constant incoming data stream of Max’s vitals, adjusting as they deem necessary. Steel pumps cool air through the suit, puffing it out for better flow. Not enough to cause any degree of hypothermia, just slow things down. Buy time.

And all the while Steel keeps Max asleep. Working overtime to shield Max from the pain of his broken body. Max would sleep for as long as it took for Steel to fix him, and then once Max was physically healed, they’d get to work on the trauma this has caused them both.

Because Steel had almost lost him. Again and again. Their Bonded. Steel didn’t have enough memory banks filled in to understand just what it meant to Steel’s people, but to them, this connection was Sacred.

In the short time they’d known each other, Ma had become everything to Steel. And Max had more than proved today that it was the same for him.

Neither of them understood all that this entailed, but both of them felt it. Their lives were now irrevocably tied, and they would have to figure out what that meant for each of them, together.

And Steel would do everything in their power to ensure they did.