As usual, my brain got hit hard by something I would never expect. I zapped through Amazon and stumbled over the Max Steel live action movie, though I didn't watch it. I just looked for the 2013 animated series, because I remembered the old one (from 2000), and things started to happen in my brain as I watched the episodes I could find. Again and again, mostly the Max and Steel scenes to get their voices and interaction. I hope I do them justice.
So this is the result of obsessive writing in a small fandom. None of the movies after season 2 were taken into consideration. I also claim artistic freedom (aka the Alternate Universe) for this because… reasons. I just wanted to get this out of my head.
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Definition Aegis:
1. a shield
2. the power to protect, support or control something
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I know I have readers who aren't familiar with new fandoms I regularly end up in (waves), but read my stuff anyway (love you for that!), so if you want to look this one up, search for the 2013 Max Steel, not the 2000.
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Max Steel had no idea what had hit him, only that it had. Repeatedly. It had come out of nowhere, without warning or even a taunt, and all hell had broken loose.
And it had been incredibly strong, rattling more than a few bones. Strong enough to knock him around in his Base Mode, the protective suit of armor. Worse than any kind of confrontation he had been in before.
He and Steel had had no time to even catch more than a glimpse of the attacker, some freakily clad weirdo who could fly, looked like a bad mix of Metal meets Hip Hop meets Salvador Dali, with some Disco sprinkled in for good measure. As strange and alien as the attacker had been, he had packed a punch that would have floored an elementor in one strike.
But Max Steel had been the target, not an elementor or even Dredd. Him. The good guy. And he had no idea what he had done to become a target. Damn!
He groaned as a spike of hot pain radiated from the general direction of his left side and abdomen, quickly spreading to encompass all of him, washing over his mind like a tidal wave. Max tried to curled up, but that only hurt even more and he cried out.
"Max? Max! Max, listen to me…"
That voice. He knew it. Even through the pain.
"Steel," he managed, though it hardly sounded like a word. The pain was threatening to split his skull.
"Oh, thank every deity you believe in," Steel replied. "You're alive."
"You'd know if I weren't," he replied.
"Uhm, yeah, I probably would."
Max almost laughed. Part of him realized that Steel was talking through their bond, which was a little unusual. The Ultralink normally reserved that for battles or when they were undercover, so to speak; when Max was his normal non-hero self, surrounded by his friends or outsiders.
He also couldn't see a lot. He wasn't blind, but there also wasn't a lot of light. The helmet gave conflicting data, almost as if the visor was on the frizz, and wasn't that an encouraging thought? He was on his back, inside a mostly dark room, and he was in pain. That about summed it all up.
"So I'm alive," he stated.
"Uh-huh. Not that it's not good, but you've been in better shape."
"I feel like crap."
"Probably look like it, too," was the not so helpful addition.
It sounded forced, Max thought. Steel was as sassy and mouthy as they came. He had comebacks that could burn, but right now things felt… off.
"Steel?"
Silence.
"Steel, what's happened?"
"I… I'm not sure."
"You're not sure?" Max echoed, eyes closing, feeling himself drift a little.
"Max!"
He groaned and his hands twitched weakly, as if to swipe away the annoying noise.
"Max, don't you dare go to sleep!" Steel snapped.
"Not sleeping," he groused.
"You were going to."
"Nope."
Steel sighed.
"So, what happened?" Max repeated, staring at the semi-darkness again.
He wished he could see his Ultralink partner. Normally Steel would separate from him when they weren't fighting. He would hover beside him, fly around, and at a rare few times that he could count off on one hand leave him alone for a few hours until they had to link again.
Now… nothing.
"You don't remember?" Steel now asked.
"I remember something attacking."
"That would be right."
"And then?"
"We fought back, remember?"
He did. In pieces. "Not very well, if this is the result."
Steel hummed. "That thing was strong. And relentless. And it had advanced tech."
"Strong enough to beat a guy with an Ultralink?"
Another hum.
Not many had managed to thoroughly kick his ass in the past. Dredd, sure. The elementors. Some of the other bad guys. Yeah. He had received his share of bruises. He had been buried under rock, trapped in force fields, showered in poisonous substances, chased by bounty hunters, thrown off cliffs and out of flying or moving vehicles, set on fire, nearly drowned… well, the list was long. Oh, not to mention more than once sucked dry of T.U.R.B.O. energy by Dredd.
But with the help of the suit he had come out of those encounters nearly unscathed. Teeth rattled, a little on the bruised side, but never anything that had required a doctor.
Not that a regular medical doctor could help with anything. Almost all of him was covered by the SteelSuit and taking it off was impossible for various reasons. For one, Steel controlled the millions of hexagonal elements that made up the suit. And well, it was his protection and a safeguard.
"Steel?" he probed into the prolonged silence.
"Promise not to panic?"
Okay, so it was really bad.
"Promise."
"We are buried underneath a mountain, inside what looks like an old storage facility, and you're pinned down by a... uhm… spear?"
Max blinked, his probably concussed brain trying to make sense of the words.
Concussion.
That was new, too.
After everything that had happened to him in the past years, with what the Bad Guys ™ did to him, a concussion was pretty much the last he had expected. He could take a lot. A whole lot. Whatever had been dished out, he had come back from it with hardly a bruise.
Now: concussion.
Huh.
"Mountain?" he echoed, sounding dumb even to himself.
Yes, definitely a concussion then.
"Yes, keep up, kid," Steel snapped. "Mr. No Laughs McCrazypants, the guy in the dorky, color-clashing outfit, kicked your ass and collapsed the mountain over us. Looks like someone used it many, many, many years ago as a storage area, but not anymore. There're more cobwebs than even I can count. Lucky for us the cavern was here, even if it lacks in décor and style."
Max ignored the words, his mind too busy with something else. "Spear?"
Here he went, blurting single words again.
Silence.
"Steel?"
Nothing.
"Steel!"
"You know how I told you that the suit can only take a limited beating?" his partner finally said, each word measured.
"Yeah," Max breathed. "I do." His head was starting to ache, and he probably had bigger problems than a headache, but right now it was growing from bothersome to too painful to ignore.
"Well…"
"Lemme guess. We reached that limit?"
Steel was silent for a moment. Uncharacteristically silent.
"Steel?"
"We… stretched that limit and went a little past it," the Ultralink finally answered slowly, almost carefully.
Max fought down a wave of nausea, which had nothing to do with the words. "Right," he mumbled, wishing for a painkiller. "Past that. How little is little?"
"Uh… way, way past a little? Dangerously close to… not actually healthy?" was the answer. More of a question than a statement, really. "For both of us? Very unhealthy, actually."
Unhealthy for an Ultralink was worse than bad. It was worse than worst. Steel had been threatened with shut-downs before, sure, and he had been hurt and tortured, but Ultralinks were resilient and bounced back quickly.
"Great," he mumbled, wondering what had happened.
His head started to hurt like blazes now and he couldn't keep his line of thought. Something else popped up. Something very important and something Steel kept apparently trying to distract him from.
"So, back to the spear?"
It got him a whirring sigh.
"I think that was meant for me? Pry me out of you? Sever the link? If so, it misfired completely. It kinda went through the suit…" Steel trailed off.
"Through…" He stopped, his whole body locking up as the words sank in. The pain intensified, now also radiating from his lower body, in his side, and no longer just in his head. "Through the suit?!"
Max finally managed to lift his hand and felt for where the pain was not so dully pulsing from his abdomen. Left side. Just above the hip bone.
He encountered… something.
Sticking out of him.
Sticking…
He felt his lungs constrict, muscles clench, and a new pain shot through his side, making him groan; actually it was more of a scream. Reflex had him grapple at the object embedded in his body, curling slightly to the left, and the pain flared with relentless sharpness, turning into agony.
"Max! No, don't! Max, relax! It's okay. It's okay!" Steel begged.
The pain started to subside as if a blanket had been thrown over it. It was still there, a background noise, but Max felt his mind clear.
"It's not okay," he whispered, sounding panicky, more than a little shell-shocked. Nausea rose inside of him and he swallowed several times. "There is something sticking out of me! That's not okay, Steel! Where is that okay?!"
"Technically it's stuck in the ground," was the rather unhelpful answer. "With you."
"Steel!"
Another hum. It was more calming than Max would ever confess to, but since he and Steel were connected, the Ultralink probably knew it. They hadn't been apart for a longer stretch of time in over two years. Thoughts sometimes flowed between them when they were Max Steel. Max had long since given up on being embarrassed.
"How could this… spear… breach the suit?" he now asked, rallying to make his mind work. "What kind of weapon is it?"
"I'm… not sure. It did go all the way through. Through you. And it did major damage."
Max tried not to think of the gory details, of some kind of alien metal rod pinning him to the ground like a bug. "I can feel that."
"To us," Steel added softly.
Max felt suddenly cold. Us. Him and Steel. Steel…
"How bad?" he asked. "How bad, Steel?" Max repeated when there was no answer.
"Bad," was the quiet answer, almost hesitant, as if Steel had tried to find a way to make it less bad.
"Bad," Max echoed. "Steel, talk to me!"
"The suit's structure is compromised in a way I never would have expected or have ever seen. The weapon emitted some kind of energy blast as it tore into us and I can't…" He stopped and sighed. "I can't repair it. There is no way to get a signal through all this rock either. I get no readings at all. Something in the stone is blocking us. Must be the metal. The suit's a bust as long as you're… stuck."
"So we need to get the weapon out."
"No."
"No?"
"No," Steel repeated.
"You could pull it out. Or at least cut it to pieces so I can move," Max told him. "Right?"
"Wrong. I can't. It damaged the suit, Max. The suit is like an extension of me, fused to you, making us... one. This weapon has to be insanely powerful to do that! I never knew anything could get through the suit. It's designed to absorb everything!"
"Except… that…?"
A sigh. "Whatever 'that' is. I'd say Ven-Ghan might have such a weapon, but he wasn't out to kill you. Or me. Or us. And he's on our side now. This… was meant to kill." Steel shivered a little. "Kill the host and sever the link, then probably annihilate me. Whoever made that thing created it with silicon-based, parasitic life forms in mind; life forms attached to hosts."
"Then get help, Steel."
"Can't."
Max felt his frustration rise. "Why not?! There are probably cracks in the stone wide enough to fit you. I'm not in any danger of overloading right now either."
"I can't!"
"Why?!"
"Because if I leave you'll die, Maxwell McGrath!" Steel snapped furiously. "The suit is structurally compromised. That means you are compromised! The suit is you, you idiot! It's not just the energy overload and the eight hour limit! That's the least of our problems. I could get us help with time to spare, but I can't! I'm keeping you together! If I detach, you…"
"… die?" Max said softly.
"Yes," was the equally soft reply.
Because Steel was keeping them stable. Not just the energy Max was generating twenty-four-seven, no. He was keeping the suit stable and Max from dying. As long as the suit existed, he was not bleeding to death or dying of whatever else a human body wasn't strong enough to withstand. The suit didn't make him indestructible, but it made him hard to take down.
Max was quiet, then finally closed his eyes and sank into the connection they shared, doing something he had only done a few times in the past. The first time had been accidental. He had ended up in Steel's mind-space. Well, they had shared mind-space or something like it.
Afterwards, no one had talked about it.
But with the growing understanding of their partnership, with the months turning into years, they had done it a few more times.
It was… new. It was… strange. It was so very much them.
Actually, Max had sought out quiet, remote places to practice. His uncle had drilled it into him, how important it was to train, and with the experience came the realization that brute force wasn't all that needed to be finessed and trained. Their connection needed that, too.
So they had experimented, away from prying eyes, telling no one. Max had been adamant about it. Steel hadn't been too thrilled to let his willing host slide so far away from reality, into the hub where both minds met, but he had come to understand how important it was.
Steel had once explained to him that the moment Ultralinks acquired a host, the mind was absorbed and the Ultralink controlled everything. That's how the parasites worked. And the longer that connection lasted, the greater the chance that the absorbed mind would be lost forever, even after separation.
For Max and him it was different, though. Steel had never absorbed his mind and when they met in the deep-link, it was as equals. The hub, the mind-plane of existence that was real and then again not, was a place where they could see and touch the other as if they were still on the outside. Their forms didn't change, nor did their abilities. It was a cyber render. It was reality inside his head. It was there, but not physical. Max had found he could change the render, shape it to what he wanted it to look like. He had tried various versions and had finally settled on his home.
Physically he hadn't moved, but his mind was where no one else could follow.
Physically they were, trapped underneath tons of rock, inside a mountain, with metal and whatnot blocking signals and inhibiting scans.
Screwed. They were totally screwed.
Max was about to draw a deep breath, then thought better of it. He had no clue how much his body might translate. He just opened his eyes, the surreal world of the mind-space everywhere. It fell into place around him, shifting into the well-known and familiar surroundings of his room at home. Steel was close, hovering as he always did.
"So, to sum up," he spoke out loud, even if he had no real voice in here, "I've got an alien weapon stuck inside me, which is also pinning me to the floor, and it should have been impossible to happen because nothing can penetrate the SteelSuit. You're keeping me from bleeding out, though we got no idea if I can actually bleed in the suit 'cause I haven't taken it off since we first met. Which, come to think of it, gross…"
Steel hummed in agreement. The whole matter of having to wear the suit had come up a few times, but it was now so much part of him, Max rarely ever gave it much of a thought. It didn't feel like an armor at all, more like his own body, and while it had been weird for a while, it was no more. Two years and counting, and it felt normal. Just like having Steel in his head, uplinking to him, joining with him, was totally normal.
"Anything we can do?" Max wanted to know.
"Nothing I can think of right now. I can't leave you, Max," Steel told him softly. He crossed his arms in a very human way of hugging his chest. "You'd die."
Looking at the mind-image of his Ultralink partner, Max took in the frightened expression. Yes, Steel was frightened. Out of his mind frightened.
"We are literally stuck, huh?" he said calmly.
Steel moved back and forth as if he was pacing. "Yeah. Unless someone removes that metal rod in your body… And I think that's a horrendously bad idea to begin with."
"You think I'd start leaking T.U.R.B.O. energy?"
"Uh, no? It's not like it's flowing in your veins and you can bleed out," Steel snarked. "It's generated by your cells, which are a crazy hybrid mix, and you got the short straw in that regard. But all things considered, you can't bleed T.U.R.B.O. energy."
"But I'd bleed," Max summed it up.
"Maybe. There are too many unknown variables. I'm just guessing here." He thoughtfully tapped a pointy end against the location of where his voice unit display sat. "And I'm guessing you wouldn't bleed the red stuff. The suit would probably seal the entry and exit points. You'd just perish due to shock, trauma and the instability of the whole outfit."
"Way to cheer me up, buddy," Max muttered. "Also not an option. Anything we can do? Anything at all?"
"Hope Forge starts missing us?"
Max chuckled. "Yeah. And get mad enough to send out the hounds. But how would he know where to look?"
"Well, we did leave quite a trail when Bozo Numbskull attacked and chased us," Steel said thoughtfully. "Wide enough for even the commander to follow it."
Despite the attempt at humor, Max felt something cold wash down his spine. The attacker!
Steel floated closer, their minds so meshed together, Max's thoughts spilled over. As much as they had worked on privacy, emotional spikes leaked. He looked as worried as Max felt, and as scared. Their hunter might still be out there, looking, searching, trying to find a trophy of his kill.
"I won't let anyone get you," he promised. "You're my Ultralink, Steel. Ven-Ghan tried. Dredd tried. Extroyer tried. I'm not giving you up! You're mine!"
One of Steel's hands rested on his chest and the overspill was telling Max all he needed. He felt the same, would never lie about it, and he knew he didn't just want Steel with him because it kept him from going nuclear. Steel was his best friend, his partner, was his bodyguard and his safety net, the one being in the whole world who was that close to him. No one else could ever get this close. No one else knew him like Steel; not even his Mom.
The wordless thank you was still clear enough for Max.
The stabbing pain in his stomach was momentarily back and he curled in on himself for a second, riding it out. He breathed out a curse, hearing Steel's worried exclamation, felt his touch, but there was nothing he could do.
Then again…
The pain suddenly receded as warmth ensconced him, and Max groaned in relief. He looked up, into the blue iris display.
"You…?"
"It's not much," Steel murmured, hands waving in agitation. "All I can do, actually. Useless. So useless."
Max laughed weakly, the dull pulse of pain heaven compared to before. Parts of him felt weirdly numb, but it was preferable to the other option. "Far from it, buddy. How?"
"We are linked. Deep-linked right now. You know I can control the suit to a degree."
"A big degree."
Steel could actually control him like a puppet without strings. It had taken a while for Max to get over the first time the bio-organic had done that, and trust had come slowly.
Now it got him a shrug. "Yeah. A big degree. As long as you don't fight me, that is."
Another weak chuckle. "I'm no match for you, Steel, and you know it. Ultralinks have full control."
Steel moved back and forth, twisting his hands.
"Or not?" Max hazarded a guess.
"Well, technically yes. I'm a parasite. That's my purpose. You would be the Link Slave."
Max sat on the ground of the rendering of his room, the pain still there in the background, but his full attention was on his Ultralink partner.
"You're not a parasite."
"I feed off your energy, human," was the level reply, the expression in the single eye stern. "Ultralinks assimilate the host. They are parasitic, silicon-based life forms. I'm an Ultralink. That makes me a parasite."
Max shook his head. "You need me, I need you. I'd call this a symbiosis."
Steel huffed. "No one else would call it that. Ultralinks are designed to take over and control the host. That's not symbiosis."
"Well, and then there's you…"
Steel dropped to his eye level, looking into the blue eyes of his host, and Max felt the hope and the need between them.
"I consume what you generate, Max," he stated slowly. "I need that energy to live."
"And I need you so I don't blow up because I got whacky DNA. Win-win. You're not a parasite, Steel," he repeated. "All that time, I never called you that. And I called you a lot," he grinned brightly, "but never that. I don't care what N-Tek thought or still thinks about you. You're my friend, my partner, my symbiont."
"Thank you, Max," came the heartfelt reply. "And you're not a Link Slave. You're my human host. My friend. I don't want to ultralink to anyone else."
Max smiled. "I know. So, back to the topic at hand: you can dampen the pain?"
Steel twisted his hands again, the electronic eye shifting left and right. "Yes?"
He ignored the quizzical note to the confirmation. "Okay. But you can't detach from me for even a minute and take out the spear yourself?"
"No. The moment I disconnect, things could go really, really bad. And knowing us, they probably would, too. Permanently and finally bad."
Max closed his eyes, head sinking to rest on his pulled-up knees. An idea was forming in his head and he knew it was superbly bad and probably the only way they could make it out of there.
Steel made a noise of surprise and protest as he picked up on those thoughts. "No way! No way am I doing that! Get that out of your head! Right now! I don't want to hear any more of it, nor do I want to see it!" He slapped a hand against his head as if to shake those images out of himself.
Max looked up, feeling tired and exhausted. "Any better ideas?"
"Wait for your uncle?"
"He might not find us."
"Forge's like a dog with a bone. He will. And isn't that a nice image. I see him as a bullterrier. Or a hound dog. I'd call him Sprocket." Steel hummed, sounding amused for a moment, tapping his hand thoughtfully against what could be considered a mouth in a human.
"Steel… he might not find us in time. There's someone out there who did this to us, who is either still looking for us or he might be wreaking havoc in Copper Canyon or wherever…"
"You're in no shape to fight anyone!"
Max got up, feeling the pain increase again. It was a reflection from the outside world and a testament to how badly off he was. And just how far Steel could go helping him without taking the last step.
He squared his shoulders. "Could you do it?"
"Max…"
"Deep-linked, could you do it?" Max demanded harshly, eyes narrowed, mouth set in a determined line.
"Yes, but…"
"No but."
"I'm not going to hurt you any more than you already are!" Steel cried.
"It can't get any worse! We're stuck here!"
And if to demonstrate, a hot flash of pain raced through him, made Max cry out. He felt close to blacking out and it was the longest time before he could catch a breath. And he wasn't really breathing in mind-space.
"This is bad," he heard Steel mutter, voice filled with panic. "So bad. So very bad."
Thoughts zipped through the shared mind-space and Max frowned as he caught some of them, clearly originating from Steel's mind.
"I don't regret anything," he said, stopping the Ultralink's muttering.
"What?"
"I said I don't regret a thing, Steel. Nothing of this. Yes, my life took a completely different turn, but it wasn't like I could have done anything to prevent it. I wasn't accidentally exposed to Takion energy through an experiment. I'm half Takion and my human side can't handle it. You showed up before my life ended quite abruptly."
Steel blinked.
"Your offer to ultralink with me kept and keeps me alive," Max added.
"You had no idea what you would get into."
"Yeah, well, no thanks to my uncle. You had no memories, just followed whatever instinct got you to me, and I had to choose between life and death. Easy choice, I think." Max smiled.
Steel floated closer again. "The Takion energy reactivated me. I just went where it was."
"You didn't have to offer."
"I had to. I was hungry. You were so full of T.U.R.B.O. energy, it was like an all-you-can-eat buffet."
He laughed at the image appearing in his mind, accompanied by the need Steel had felt back then. "Yeah, well, lucky for me you came along. And I mean it: I regret nothing. I know we had our differences, still have, but you're my best buddy, Steel. Not just because you keep me from going critical."
The next words were cut off by a new hot wave of agonizing pain and he screwed his eyes shut, trying to ride it out without screaming. A whimper escaped anyway.
Steel made unhappy noises and pushed at the connection, removing Max little by little from the sensory input until it was bearable again.
"We have to do something about this," Max managed through clenched teeth. "I can't wait this out! Whatever this thing is doing, it's even worse than the option we have."
Steel looked desperate, trembling a little.
"I can't stay stuck to the ground forever," Max repeated.
"Well, technically… and probably…"
He closed his eyes and dropped his head against the cyber-rendered wall behind him. "Steel…"
"I am the one maintaining your human body, Max," the bio-organic being told him, sounding almost like one of his old teachers in lecture mode for a moment. "Well, the suit is. And the suit was created by me. It will keep maintaining your physical flesh form indefinitely."
"I have a spear sticking out of me."
"More like stuck through you."
He grimaced.
"And while a normal human would be dying of it, might even be already dead, you are a hybrid, Maxwell. Your father's Takion side is very powerful, as you repeatedly demonstrated in the past by nearly blowing yourself to pieces while I was temporarily not around."
He sighed, annoyed. "I don't want to stay like this until, maybe, some day, someone finds us!"
"Forge isn't a slacker. You don't make Commander of N-Tek because you're just another pretty face. He'll be here."
Max shook his head. "You don't know that. I don't know that. We both don't know if staying speared like that won't turn into something worse. Oh, and I might just starve or die of thirst."
"Unlikely."
"The SteelSuit?"
"Yep."
"Which might or might not be able to counter the effects of the weapon skewering me?"
Steel was silent, probably checking an algorithm or two. Or whatever.
"We have to do this, partner," Max pushed gently after a long moment of silence between them. "I can't just lay here and wait. The alien freak who did this in the first place might even come back and finish what he started."
"You're asking me to…" Steel stopped, agitated and zipping left and right. "No, no, no! I can't do that, Max! I just can't!"
"Steel…."
"You want me to use you! To inflict even more pain! To remote control your actions and just… override your body! I won't do it!"
"Yes, you will, because that's what you can do!" Max snapped. "It's the only way! You control he host! You can take over and be me! You can cut off the pain signals and override my entire body and mind!"
There was a noise that sounded almost like a whine, strained and painful. Steel was battling demons. His own demons.
"I trust you, Steel. Absolutely. You were designed to do this and as your host I know you can."
"It would hurt you so much…"
"No more than it already hurts, buddy."
"Max, please!"
He reached out and carefully cupped his hands around the Ultralink's body, cradling him close. "I trust you. It's the only way. I can't do this without you and I don't want either of us to die like this. I'll go down fighting, not pinned to the ground and doing nothing at all. So trust yourself. You can do this with me. We can do this together."
Steel, in a rare display of physical affection, wrapped his arms around Max's neck, hugging him close. His fear was clear to feel. As was his terror of inflicting pain on his human host, who was already in a bad enough shape.
"We've done it before, buddy."
"Not this way. This will be all the way."
"I trust you," Max repeated. "You won't let me get lost. We… you… can do it."
Steel made a gulping noise and almost reluctantly moved out of the embrace, hovering before his host.
"We can do it," he echoed.
He sounded far from convinced.
This was in his programming, was his purpose, and still he hadn't done anything this atrocious ever before. Steel had only ever had two hosts, both willing and partners, not Link Slaves, and while Max didn't doubt it would be like riding a bike for the Ultralink, he understood the terror it held for his friend.
"Let's do this," he murmured.
tbc...