They had never deep-linked for this amount of time before.
For any reason.
And especially not because of such a life-threatening situation.
There had been various moments in the past, moments where Max had had to trust his partner, give up control, while Steel acted and spoke for them. The SteelSuit was Steel's creation, his connection to his host, and gave him complete control of Max's physical movements if he wanted to. But he had never forced himself on his host, especially not malevolently. They were partners and they were equals.
Moments had been all Steel had asked for in the past. A brief moment in time, the Ultralink's presence barely there and then gone again.
Never to do something that would be close to torture to Max's human body should he feel something. Max himself didn't really want to ponder the idea of pulling the spear out of his own body, while conscious and completely aware. He didn't think he could do it. This was far from a splinter stuck in a finger or his palm. This was a huge metal lance that had gone all the way through and was firmly lodged in the ground.
So it was up to Steel. Their only chance to survive this mostly intact.
Steel was currently everywhere, but he hadn't asserted complete control yet. He hadn't taken over and he hadn't assimilated the host mind. Actually, he was currently busy shielding Max from the world outside, from the pain, from the malfunctioning suit. Max felt like he was wrapped in cotton wool, cushioned against any kind of impact, and reality was far, far away.
He was aware of the worry and the care, the doubts and self-flagellation from his Ultralink partner, and he reached out, reassuring the symbiont wordlessly. Over and over again.
Steel huddled a little into the connection, seeking protection, as well as reassurance, seeking energy and life. He was hesitating to push Max all the way back, still fighting his very nature to be what he had been created to be.
This could kill the host.
It could erase Max's mind. It could destroy his body.
XxX
/"What happens when I die?"
That had been one of the many questions Max had asked of the Ultralink, throughout those days they had spent not fighting or training. When they had just spent time together. Never apart for long. There had been downtime, and recently all the more with Dredd and the threat of the Makino invasion vanquished.
"Will you go into stasis again?"
Looking into the electronic eye, Max could read a lot more than anyone else in that expression. Yes, Steel had expressions. Lots of them. Not just symbols flashing over the visible screen, not just a change of the optical device. It was so much more than what anyone could see on the outside. Two years into this partnership and Maxwell McGrath had a pretty deep and very good understanding of the Ultralink he shared his life with. Many, many personal hours of his life.
"Probably."
"What's probably?"
"A likelihood of an event," was the snippy reply.
He scowled at the alien lifeform.
Steel crossed his arms and scowled back.
Max could play that game and was as much a pro at it as was Steel. So he waited. Until Steel relented with an almost put-upon sigh.
"I mean that I don't know, Maxwell," as the annoyed answer.
"You went dormant when you were separated from Dad. He was… gone. Everyone thought he was dead and the link had been severed."
"Your father and I shared… something different."
Max raised an eyebrow.
"It was a bond of necessity."
"Like us," he remarked dryly.
"Yeah," Steel murmured.
"So… no difference."
The Ultralink shrugged. "For me it is. Your dad and I… we fought as partners, warriors, but the bond was more surface than anything else. He didn't need me to stabilize a humongous amount of energy his body was generating. He could control it just fine. He just needed a little extra protection and access to the different modes."
"Huh."
"We were, well, we… functioned as a weapon against Makino."
"Still sounds like us."
The annoyance grew into exasperation. "No. No, it's not the same. We're bonded for life."
"Because without you I'd go critical and explode. And without me… you'd go off-line permanently... but you could link with my Dad again. He was your first host and you could go back to him."
Steel hovered silently, then made a noise like blowing out a breath. "No."
Max blinked. "No? What? No? Why no?"
"Because I can't," was the annoyed reply.
"Steel, why? You and Dad were linked before. You could link with anyone!"
"Well, anyone who can feed me enough energy to survive. Seems like my partnership with the famous Ja'em Mk'rah backfired," the Ultralink snarked.
Max wasn't deterred. "Why couldn't you take my Dad as a new host? You modelled my suit after his own armor. You and he were partners."
"Because I can't, okay?!" was the furious reply. "I'm not as unaffected by all of this as you think. It seems like you have the short end of this deal, but I'm in as much as you are."
"Meaning." Sometimes it was like pulling teeth, but not as bad as with his uncle. Forge Ferrus was a master of evading truths.
"Meaning that you are connected to me for the rest of my life," Steel repeated what he had said two years ago.
Max silently ran the sentence through his head. Back then he hadn't thought too deeply about it. Today it was making a little more sense.
"But your life is running on the energy I'm generating…"
Steel did a good impression of raising an eyebrow. Despite missing eyebrows.
"Uh…" Okay, he was going to short-circuit a braincell or two any moment now. "You're not saying I'm going to live a long as you, right? I mean, okay, sure, I know I'll blow myself up without you controlling all that energy, but…"
Steel bobbed a little.
"Really?!"
"I think so, yeah. It's not like I can draw from any kind of experience. Hasn't happened to me or anyone else I know. And it's not like I talk to other Ultralinks. There are no support groups and aside from Torbolt, I know of no other Ultralink who broke away from Makino. Well, we could form a group," Steel kept on rambling. "Reformed Ultralinks Anonymous. RUA. Sounds like a battle cry. RUA!"
"But why only me?"
Steel blinked, sideswiped by the question as it interrupted his flow. "I don't know, but it is you, Maxwell McGrath! I couldn't switch if my life depended on it, okay?" Steel's agitation was clear to feel. "We're linked for life! Our lives. You're my host and you'll always be my host."
Max's head was spinning. The jealousy he had felt surging through him when his Dad and Steel had reconnected and talked about the past was suddenly far, far away.
Yes. Yes, he confessed to having been jealous, because Steel was his best friend, his buddy, the one he had shared everything with so far, and suddenly his father came back from the dead. Steel's first host and partner. Max could be honest with himself: he had feared losing Steel. Not as a siphon for his energy, but as a battle partner. As a friend. He would just be a means to help the younger McGrath survive until a different solution could be found, but Jim would be Ja'em Mk'rah, hero of the universe, again, with Steel as his shield.
That hadn't happened.
And now Steel had dropped that bomb on him.
They were connected for life and Steel wouldn't be able to switch to another host should something happen to Max.
Aw, crud!
And didn't that sound like his uncle's voice in his head? He almost laughed.
"Does anyone at N-Tek know? Uncle Ferrus? Berto? Mom?"
"No one."
Max had to sit down as he felt the world tilt a little more. "This is insane!"
"Tell me about it."
"You can't… with me…"
"Why not?" Steel asked curiously. "I don't mind. Not with you. I like you."
He laughed, sounding a little forced, breathless. "I love you, too, buddy. You're my best friend. But you're an Ultralink! You should be able to disconnect and find a new host!"
"I'm not like the others."
Max looked into the single eye, listened to the seriousness in each word. He knew Steel was different, but now he knew just how far that went.
"Did you know?"
"You mean when I offered to help you to not blow yourself to pieces way back when? Nope. Didn't figure that one out until recently."
He wanted to talk about this with someone, but part of him was too scared out of his mind to mention this… insanity. He was an endless generator of T.U.R.B.O. energy. Steel was keeping him from blowing himself and everyone in the vicinity to pieces, helped him control that energy, channel it into various forms, and he lived off it. As long as Max was feeding him, Steel would live. An endless circle.
And total insanity!/
XxX
"Steel?" he prompted softly, pulling himself out of his thoughts.
It was time. They couldn't sit this one out. Max had never been good at waiting and this wasn't just some boring stake-out.
There was a pronounced shudder.
"We have to do this, Steel. We have to. I know you're scared. So am I."
"Not scared," Steel whispered.
Max smiled a little at the emotions he felt. "Terrified?"
"That about sums it up."
"This is natural for you, buddy."
"Uh, no? Because my Ultralink pals don't let the host mind survive? Because they absorb and assimilate? Because they erase memories with no regard to the host mind? I'm not them!"
"No, you're not," Max calmed him. "You're my symbiont. You can do this. I think you're the only one who could."
"Still terrified. Down to my very bones. If I had any. Which I don't."
There was no missing the anxiousness. Because he would have to go past the surface and into the depths. He would have to confront the very active, very strong and resilient mind of Maxwell McGrath – and hope it would submit. Even if Max's instincts reared up for a moment, opposed to the invasion, he would have to be careful not to hurt what he encountered.
Tricky. Difficult. Minuscule surgery without cutting the mind.
"So am I," Max said softly. "I'm scared. Really, really scared. And then some. But the longer we wait…"
Steel groaned. Max felt his presence move, felt him everywhere, but so far the Ultralink hadn't done anything more than to gently separate Max's mind from the pain his body felt. Like he had drawn up a fluffy shield, cushioning every impact, absorbing signals, and wrapping his host in layers and layers of protective warmth.
Max was under no illusion that it would stay this comfy. He was also under no illusion that other Ultralinks would have acted this way.
This was Steel. His friend. His partner.
"I'm… sorry…" Steel finally managed. "I know you trust me, and I'm… I might not live up to that trust. I'm so, so sorry…"
"Nothing to apologize for."
"I can think of a million things. Most about to happen soon." There was a shaky exhalation of breath, even if there was no need to breathe at all. "Here goes," the Ultralink whispered, voice shaky and small.
And then he was everywhere. Max felt a notion of panic as he was cut off from everything, from his body, from every sensation, sight and sound and touch, as he became nothing but a still self-aware presence within a vast mind that had been his own and was no longer.
This wasn't like when Steel puppeteered him, moved human muscles in a human body, leaving his mind his own.
This was way different.
And it made him want to scream.
Sight switched back on, having him wince.
Sound had him gasp.
He was a back-seat rider, could see and hear, but he could no longer interfere. And that was only courtesy of Steel's programming, of being partners and not enemies. Ultralinks never gave the host a chance.
Still, where there had been points of contact between him and Steel, nothing had remained.
Everything was gone, that gentle hum of his Ultralink's steady presence, and their bond was like a dead husk of what it had been.
The next thoughts were not his own. They were infused into him like liquid fire, taking up his thinking, his action, and he went with them. They did things, they acted for him, and he was just a watcher.
The cry that escaped Max's insubstantial lips was involuntary, filled with a surge of soul-deep panic and terror or losing all of himself, of winking out of existence, even though he knew it had been his idea, his plan, and that Steel was his friend. His symbiont, not a parasite.
It ran like a chant through his mind, feverish and strong, keeping him sane in this new world where nothing was his own. Steel was his friend. Steel was his partner. Steel was his symbiont.
Not a parasite.
Not evil.
Like from a distance, away from the agonizing pain, he witnessed how his body moved, how his own hands grabbed the lance-like weapon and tore it out like it was nothing but a tooth pick.
There was no pain.
Max knew it should be agony, he should be screaming, but there was nothing. It was like watching a movie.
Blood dripped from the smooth metal that had been embedded in him, but none spilled out of the entry or exit wound. The suit smoothly sealed the gaping injury, energy crackling over the newly-formed black skin. It took care to heal the body as much as was possible for now, which meant to stop if leaking bodily fluids and deal with the deeper damage later.
And then energy enveloped him, shaped his form anew as Steel chose the appropriate mode to attempt an escape. Weaponizing him to the maximum effect, to deal with the situation at hand.
XxXxXxXxXx
Steel dug deep. Very deep. Using all Max had to offer and then found even more. His host could generate a tremendous amount of energy. It was raw, uncontrolled, very much unlike how his father's energy had felt. That had been just a battery. Max was… a roaring vortex, wild, unrestrained, and with such incredible potential. There had been several times in the past when he had nearly gone past the critical stage, and Steel had stopped the reaction just in time.
Now he was pushing the human into doing what they usually worked to contain. He needed the power to get them out of the mountain, through tons upon tons of rock and metal.
And he did it without his partner, without a second opinion or a quip. He no longer felt Max's presence, which was a disconcerting feeling all on its own, but to know that the human was still there, conscious, simply trapped, pulled at him. It was paining him to do what his kind had been created to do.
Not evil, Steel told himself desperately. No, no, no! Not evil!
Max wasn't assimilated. He was still there, just not in control, and the deep-link wasn't going to erase his mind.
A whimper escaped him as he effortlessly followed his programming, the body under his control no weaker than before. The injury was bothersome, like an achy subroutine that would need to be dealt with later.
But nothing about this was just a subroutine.
It was a serious wound and an even more serious situation mentally for both of them.
The mountain stood no chance against the weapon that was Max Steel. A massive amount of energy exploded from the slim form and Steel's momentary joy was short-lived as he felt the sudden drop.
He had drained the human hybrid to the last drop of energy. Max would never really run out of it, but his already weakened body could barely take any more of a beating.
Steel groaned, aware that if he took the final step and absorbed, he would be able to shape the host into whatever he wanted to counter those effects, and it was an alluring option.
Energy pulsed weakly, the cells regenerating as quickly as they could, and the Ultralink greedily grabbed for it, then stepped back with a whine.
"No. No, no, no! Not a monster!" he whispered fervently. "Not a parasite."
Inside the vast mind-space where he was completely alone, Steel turned and looked for the anchor line he had left to Max's very soul. It was invisible to everyone but him, it was the only safety, and it was the bread crumbs he followed.
"Max!"
There was no answer, just a pulse from the nothingness.
tbc...
