Disclaimers: I don't own Max Steel at all. If I would, I'd probably be living in warm, tropical Florida than cold, boring England!
A/N: I know I said I wouldn't post until I got a plot-line, but I have. What if (yes, an AU fic) Josh's parents never died? I don't mean that, by some miracle, they both survived, but were never in that situation? This is kinda like the introductions in series 1, episode 3, Max Steel, but with some differences. () means that this part is going to be very similar. Enough about that, on with the story!
Chapter 1:
"Josh, we need to go now!" A female voice called out into the silence, cutting through like a knife. She put her hands on her hips, frowned, and then grinned. Creeping up the stairs, she made sure she didn't make a sound, and almost knocked the door of its hinges. Josh awoke with a start, and then realized what had happened when he saw his sister, Melissa, at the door, grinning like mad. She had the same chocolate-brown eyes her brother had, but had inherited brown hair from her parents. She was fairly tall for her age, nearly coming up to Josh's shoulder. Six years separated them in age, and only a few weeks ago she'd entered the 'terrible teens' as they were called.
"Ok, I'm up, happy now?" He grumbled, rubbing his eyes. He looked over at his clock, and swore. Melissa put on a faked-shocked face.
"Mom and dad wouldn't be happy if they heard you say that!" She said, hiding a grin. Josh glared at her, murder written on his face.
"Mel, it's half-past six! I know you wake up early, but it doesn't give you the right to wake me up at the same time!" The smile faded from her face.
"Hello? Today's Saturday? The tour?" Josh looked blank. "The tour round N-Tek?" She clarified.
"Oh!" He did a double-take. "That's happening today!" He practically yelled at her.
"Yes, it is, and please stop shouting! You'll wake up the entire neighbourhood!" She replied, covering her ears with her hands. Both of their parents worked at N-Tek, their father, Jim, worked as a manufacturing designer, which meant that he had to take a lot of time to travel, inspecting the many manufacturing plants N-Tek had stationed around the globe. Their mother, Molly, did something a little less interesting; she worked as a secretary to the boss himself: Mr Smith.
"You'd better hurry up, or I'll set Max on you!" josh smiled to himself. Max was their very energetic border collie.
"OK, OK, I'm getting up. Jeez, anyone would think you ruled the house, the way you carry on!" Saying nothing, she walked out of Josh's room, and into the living room.
What am I going to do with her? He thought to himself as he changed. She's worse than our mom, and that's saying something! He walked downstairs, and saw her flicking through every channel on cable. He leaned against the door frame and looked at her.
"Remind me again why we have to go." He asked, exasperated. I could be doing something more interesting today, like training for the DOX, it's only three months away.
"Because," she replied, turning to look at him, acting serious, "our parents expect us to walk around N-Tek, be totally amazed, and want to go and work there. Simple, yet stupid!" she turned her attention back to the TV. "I want to go only to see all of the equipment they've got there." Josh shook his head. Unlike him, his sister was more of the intellectual type, rather than athletic.
"What was that about?" A new voice said, and both Josh and Melissa turned to look.
"Well…depends on how much you heard!" Melissa replied, giving their father her best, award-winning smile.
"There's a tour at N-Tek, and both of you are going to stay with them, no going off to try and destroy stuff, Melissa." He warned, glaring at her. She kept on smiling. "And you've got to look after your cousin." Both of their faces fell. Their cousin, Ashley, was the most obnoxious person on the planet. Spending the whole day with him was not how the McGrath siblings planned on spending their day.
"Dad, can't we leave him with the tour group? Why do we…" Melissa started, and then realized what she'd said, and quickly stopped. She had been planning on looking around N-Tek, without the tour group, but wasn't going to get the chance now.
"What was that, Melissa?" Jim asked suspiciously.
"Er…I think I can hear my cell. I must have left it on overnight." She made up, and all but ran out of the room. She barged into Molly, ran up the stairs, and slammed the door. As soon as she'd gone, Jim turned his attention to his son.
"I don't suppose you could enlighten me on this situation?"
"Er…gotta go!" Josh replied, grabbing his coat. "Melissa, come on!" He yelled up the stairs, and she appeared a few seconds later, pulling on a coat and carrying a small, camouflaged bag.
"See ya, we're going!" She called out to her parents, and they left before they could say or do anything else.
"That was close!" She commented, sitting on a wall and unlocking the wheels in her sneakers.
"I know! Come on, we'd better hurry up, or we're going to be seriously late." Josh replied, and Melissa started skating, him jogging to keep up.
"Well, at least we managed to escape another lecture this time," She commented, as the island N-Tek was based on came into view, the building itself looking awe-inspiring to Melissa, as usual.
"One question though: why did I have to come with you? This is something your school thought up, so how come I got dragged along as well?" He asked, knowing the answer. She fluttered her eyelashes a few times at him.
"They needed someone older to look after the kids, and you volunteered."
"Hey! I did not volunteer! It was either this, or spend the whole weekend being bored to death by a lecture given to me by our parents about responsibility. Not much of a choice!"
"Fine, let's just hope that this will be more interesting than the last tour. And the one before that, and the one before that…" she droned on, until Josh tuned her out, ignoring her. They caught the ferry to the island, and talked about small, meaningless things like school, friends and relationships. Josh's girlfriend, Laura, had flown off to Hong Kong a couple of days ago, to spend some time with the members of her family that she never normally got to see on a regular basis. Normally, Melissa wouldn't have minded, but the trip was for three months. She'd been gone a few days, and Josh was already complaining.
Pretending that she needed some fresh air, she walked onto the deck, relaxed against the rail, and turned her face up to the sky, closing her eyes and feeling the warm June sun on her skin.
All too soon, the ferry pulled up to the port and dropped anchor. Reluctantly, Melissa walked off the boat, meeting up with her brother, and walked inside. As soon as she walked in, she immediately noticed how much cooler it was there than outside, which was good. She hated it when it got too hot. Looking around, she sighed in ennui, and heard Josh mirror her actions.
"How long do you think it'll take before it gets boring again?" Josh asked her. She shrugged.
"About five minutes, I guess, give or take." She replied half-heartedly. Josh immediately picked up on this.
"What's wrong?" He asked, looking at her. She was about to reply when the tour-guide came up to the gaggle of people she was meant to take care of for the next few hours.
At least this'll beat fighting terrorists in this weather. The blonde thought, then changed her mind when she saw two familiar faces in the crowd. Then again, maybe I should have gone for the mission today.
After some brief introductions, they began with the tour. As usual, most of the doors they passed were inaccessible to the general public, even to some of the staff.
Always now, forever, and has been. Josh thought to himself, his mind wandering. He and Melissa were lingering at the back of the group, occasionally pausing to see if anything was accessible to them, somehow keeping out of the way of their cousin, who was right up at the front, asking a question every three seconds. It lasted for nearly an hour before Josh got bored, and pretended to pay attention to the blonde in front. She had introduced herself earlier, but he could only remember her first name.
Rachel. Well, it's obvious how I'd've remembered her name: it's very common. She had a strange last name, though. Some town or city in England, I think. He started reeling off names, not noticing that Melissa had been missing for a full five minutes, meaning that she was either lost, or had found something interesting.
Hearing a soft snap, she realized that this was one door they hadn't restricted access to. Yet. Opening the door slightly, she peered inside, wondering what she would find. The room was completely dark, except for where the light from the door hit some surfaces. One of them appeared to be a large tank, filled with some kind of green…stuff, for lack of a better word. Smiling to herself, she closed the door, and headed back towards the tour group.
Hearing footsteps behind him, Josh turned to see his sister, out of breath and slightly red, racing towards him. Stopping, he folded his arms over his chest, and grinned at her.
"Find anything interesting?" He asked her, waiting until she got her breath back. She smiled back at him, indicating that she had.
"You know the testing area they showed us?" She asked rhetorically. "Meet me there after the tour's finished." She said cryptically, and no matter what Josh said, did, or bribed her with, she refused to say what she'd seen.
"Come on, what is it that's so important?" He chided, as they walked out of N-Tek. She looked round, considering her options.
"We need to come back later," she whispered to him, noticing the number of people around N-Tek. "There are too many people here."
"Fine. Ten o'clock?" He asked, before getting back onto the ferry. Melissa nodded.
"Josh, you up?" Melissa whispered, standing out side his room.
"Yeah," came the whispered reply, as the door opened. Creeping downstairs, Josh opened the door, pausing to see if their parents had heard. Once he was sure they hadn't, they made their way to N-Tek.
() "It's locked!" Melissa said, trying to open the door, and kicking it in frustration. "We'll never get in; we might as well go home." Josh sighed, and sat down on the ground, waiting for her to gather her bag, the contents of which were all over the island.
Suddenly, the lights went out, and by the light of the moon, he saw someone running across the island to N-Tek. Getting up, he looked around for his sister, and then decided to follow. The door had been ripped off its hinges, and thrown aside, almost casually. Hearing a computerized voice, he tracked it to the source, and looked at it, confused.
"Why is there an elevator in the gardening shed?" He wondered, staring at the panel which was sparking, and stepping into the free elevator.
"Toto, we're not in…" he began, as soon as he stepped out of the lift, and was ambushed. "Hey, who are you! Does Mr Smith know you're down here?" He managed to ask, before being led away.
"Josh? Where are you?" Melissa asked nervously. She'd come back to where they'd been trying to get the door open, looking for Josh when the lights had gone out, but couldn't find him.
He wouldn't have gone back without me, that's a fact. She thought to herself, walking round N-Tek, seeing if anything was different. Noticing the now-broken door, she walked in, and down the elevators.
"Perfect timing," a voice commented as Josh was being handcuffed, and he looked up. The person seemed normal, except for the fact that he had a bionic arm. They walked along in silence for a while, not knowing that the person who'd broken in was planning an attack.
"One, two, three," he counted, and then attacked. Josh kept out of the way, but, once again, decided to follow him once he'd left.
"OK, what kind of place is this?" Melissa commented quietly, watching people dressed in blue jumpsuits all heading in the same direction. She frowned for a minute, and then made up her mind.
Josh had managed to loose him in the maze of corridors that was N-Tek, but followed the sound of yet another door being broken. Josh found him hunched over an enormous glass tank, filled with some type of green gunk.
"Well, we are persistent, aren't we?" He said, turning his attention to Josh.
"Hey, you bring out all my best qualities," Josh replied, launching into an attack. They seemed pretty well matched, until Josh did a spinning kick, and hit him in the face. A mask flew off, revealing a metal face.
"Your…face." Josh stuttered, before metal-face created a gun from his arm, shooting at Josh, but missing, and hitting the tank. It exploded, enveloping Josh in a sea of green. Metal-face just laughed as he watched Josh cry out in pain.
"Help me, please…" Josh said, before collapsing.
Hearing the explosion, Melissa hurried through the corridors, trying to find her brother before it was too late. She saw someone with a metal face and a metal arm walk out of a room, being very careful about not being spotted, carrying a tube of something green in his metal hand. As soon as he'd gone, Melissa rushed into the room, to see her brother lying on the floor, unconscious. She knelt down, seeing if he was still breathing and if he had a pulse, which he was and had. She put her hand in some of the green gunk that hadn't been absorbed, and felt a sudden spasm of pain shoot up through her arm as it was absorbed.