STORM FURY - PART 1

It was one of those days when nothing ambitious or highly criminal was happening in the world, or at least nothing that needed the heroics of Max Steel, N-Tek's greatest agent.

John Dread was locked up in a maximum security prison for a second time after trying to blow up N-Tek island. Psycho was missing and presumed dead after trying to hijack a 747 Military transport carrier transporting weapons to United States troops in Iraq in mid-flight. He failed to take possession of the weapons due to the collective effort of Team Steel. The crew was rescued before the plane went down, crashing into the Atlantic Ocean, and Psycho went down with the plane.

But Josh did not count Psycho out. He had survived worse things like the searing heat of an active volcano and falling down a deep gorge. Any normal person would have been killed instantly. But Psycho was restless and he was a Cy-borg, so that played in his favor. Since then he had not been seen.

And in the midst of this lull Dr. Berto Martinez was at a computer console in the command centre of N-Tek headquarters running a systems-wide diagnostic of the base weapons systems. Nothing Berto did surprised Josh. He had all this time to relax and instead spent it working. He had to take Berto out on the town one of these days, have a few drinks, meet some girls… and let nature take its course. Berto was young, but had the disposition of a clergyman. There was a saying: work to live, live to work. Berto was both.

Josh McGrath, on the other hand, was hard at work on a college term paper due soon. There may not have been any action for his alter ego Max Steel, but the student in him was not reaping the benefits of having the time off from saving the world. It was just one of those days when procrastination was not an option. He had to get this term paper done or his History professor was going to flunk him. And that would be a disaster. He had to pass with at least a B average or his father threatened to get him a tutor and then there would certainly be no time to fool around, and he would have to take summer school just to get the grade.

But there was this one movie he had seen where this teenager flunked French and his father got him a teacher for the summer. He did not want to study. But in the movie the teacher and student had a passionate fling and at the end the student passed his summer school course with one of the highest marks in the class. But that was just a movie and with his life as it was that could never happen to Josh.

His term paper was on the War of 1812 and he wanted to put a fresh new-never-thought-of angle into his work that would blow his professor away so he was at least assured a passing grade, but the hardest part was getting it finished and the fact-of-the-matter was he had no clue where he went wrong. He had done the research, written his thesis, written down his three main paragraphs, and a conclusion, but for some reason it lacked something. It did not have the punch he wanted to deliver. He had read it over several times and it sounded so bland.

"This'll never fly," he said to himself, sitting at the computer screen in his private quarters at N-Tek HQ. His quarters were furnished and it felt like a home away from home. But he preferred his bungalow on the lake. He was only here because Jefferson wanted him here so he can keep an eye on Josh and do his paper.

He could normally whip up an essay easy with all the material in front of him. And he had written one, but it was not enough. It was not something that could clench him the grade. But it was not his fault that he missed so many classes and depended on this paper to make or break him. It was his double life that caused his school life to suffer, not that he was complaining. He loved battling terrorists and saving the world. But it cost him his social life, and what good was it doing him? Sometimes he felt like dropping out of school and working as a secret agent full-time. But his father insisted that all his agents have a well-rounded education, and that went double for his son. Or rather his adopted son. Josh's real parents were dead.

But he was a smart guy and he knew he could do this. He had never quit when faced with a challenge before and was not going to start now. So he went back and did some research on the internet, hoping he could find something that would trigger inspiration. But nothing jumped out at him. And before long he found himself playing a computer game online to take some of the tension away. Sometimes a little distraction helped the mind focus better.

An hour passed, then two, and suddenly he had found that he had been playing the game for three hours. It was an addictive game. People from all around the world entered this cyber environment online choosing characters from a long list and you had to beat these levels to get to the main villain who controlled the lives of every person on the face of the planet. It was not any different than what he did in real life, but in the game and in defeating enemies you could pick up weapons and gear to get to the end faster. He played this masked god-like figure with a large Thor hammer. And when he slammed it on the ground the earth shook violently and generated an energy displacement field that killed all enemies around him. It was one of the most powerful weapons in the game and he had bought from a black-smith in a small rural town for one hundred million credits. Paying that much almost wiped him clean of credits but it was worth in the long run. He was as aggressive in the game as he was in real-life and destroyed his enemies in similar fashion. And at last he had made it to the final level. All he had to do was defeat War Hammer, the powerful god at the end of the game, and he would beat it. Something he had never done before. He had never gotten this close before. Either Jefferson called him or there was some other emergency and he had to leave the game. But this was it. Nothing was going to hold him back. He was going to beat it this time.

Suddenly the screen blinked out and the monitor went black. "Wha--? N-no way! Berto!" he shouted.

"Josh," Berto answered through Josh's wrist communicator. "What's the matter?"

"What did you do?"

"Do what? What did I do?"

"That's my question. My personal quarters just went dark."

"I'm done with the system-wide diagnostic of N-Tek Island's weapons system and now I've moved on to other less importance systems. I have clearance from Jefferson. I had to shut down a few non-essential systems to complete the task. But it won't take long. Sorry if I disturbed you."

Josh was infuriated that he lost all the data from the game he was playing. He did not even have time to save it before his room went dark. Now he would have to start from his last save point and that was no where close to where he was. But he had to calm down. He could not tell Berto that he was right in the most important game of his life because he was supposed to be working on his college term paper.

Berto then asked. "Were you doing anything important at the time of the blackout?"

Josh bit his lip. "Nothing too important." Just saving the world -- that's all!

Josh's wrist communicator beeped and Jefferson Smith broke into the conversion. "Josh," he said. "I need you in the command centre right away. We have a problem. I'll explain when you get there."

Josh rushed out of his quarters and to the elevator that lead to the Second Floor. On his way up he transformed into Max Steel. He went down a long hallway and entered the command centre. Here he found Berto, Kat, and his father all standing around the main computer monitor. On the screen was a picture of John Dread and pictures of holes in Corieth Maximum Security Prison where Dread was imprisoned.

"No way!" Max immediately said when he saw what was on the screen.

"Yes way," Jefferson said back. "Thirty minutes ago someone attempted to break John Dread out of prison, but due to the valiant efforts of prison security the attempt was forted and the assailant fled. Fortunately the situation has come under control and John Dread is still locked up. But I want you and Kat to investigate this prison break-in and to come up with any leads to who this person is and where he or she is now."

"We're on our way."

To be continued. . .