Looking In
A Max Steel FanFiction
"Where are all the trees?"
"They reach for the sky on the wild savannah my dear one. Where the rising sun sends the currents over their strong branches and warms the bark that sweet children grasp."
The voice was warm and lyrical. Just the sound of it made him feel safe. The giant with the purple eyes was no danger to him when she spoke.
"I want to see them," he whispered pleadingly. "The walls are so hard and cold."
"You will my dear one, you will." Strong, warm fingers caressed his sensory frill. "This glides through the stars to take us to a new home full of wonderful possibilities."
"What kind of tree is a posibili-tree?" he asked, wrinkling his soft nose in confusion.
The voice broke into musical laughter and for a moment his vision was filled with a warm tan mass as she leaned in to nuzzle his forehead.
"It is the best kind of tree, for we can make of it whatever we want to."
The sleek, angular shuttle glided seamlessly in and out of subspace. Stars appeared, distorted, and vanished time and again as the vessel neared its destination. The lone occupant used the brief moments between jumps to carefully stretch and work his limbs. The cockpit light glinted off of his life support suit and shown dully on the tri-point star tattooed on one green shoulder. Optic sensors set in his faceguard roved over the interior as he rolled his neck to release the tension gathered at the base of his skull. The base frame the Ven-geance had been built on was really a fighter craft; meant to accompany trading convoys across the galaxy for protection and scouting. Despite the major alterations the Black Star Council had commissioned it was by no means a comfortable vessel to spend a long voyage in. However comfort mattered little to the Kaduonnian who carefully manipulated the controls. The ship served his purpose, as did every material item he possessed. That was all that mattered. The cargo space full of ultralinks had been delivered to the Black Star Council for justice to be done. Now he was returning to the battle.
One final time the stars split apart and reformed, leaving the purple and gold vessel lightly poised over a gleaming blue world. Automatic systems surged to life, scanning the surrounding system for any Ultralink presence, known dangers, or simple irregularities. It came as no surprise to Ven Ghan that there were dozens of Makino's minions on and surrounding Earth. Those that he could detect were only the ones unskilled in or unable to shield themselves from his scanners. There were no doubt, many more. The astrometric equipment rated the volatility of the solar corona and filed that information away. Sol was a moderately stable star and should offer little danger. The gravity wells of the gas giants might prove a bit problematic but as there was little activity in the outer planets to attract the hunter's attention it was not a priority.
Suddenly a rarely used indicator flashed a low level alert. Ven Ghan glanced at it in surprise and expanded the screen on the holographic display. Lines depicting the suspiciously high concentrations of an element foreign to the humans' system danced across the graph. The element was not concentrated but mere dust in a debris filed.
"Cybertronium," the hunter stated, tilting his head to the side to study the display closer, "peculiar, and worrisome."
He flicked his wrists lightly to the side, directing the controls and guiding the ship gracefully along a new path. Automatically he angled the Ven-geance so that the circular engine scoop passed through the most active electromagnetic bands generated by the planet below. The vessel hummed at the renewed power and coursed towards the anomaly.
The debris was clearly from a space battle but the molecular makeup of the remains did not suggest an Ultralink was involved. Also from the dispersal rate of the particles it was several years old. Deciding he had collected sufficient data Ven Ghan turned the prow of his craft towards the blue planet and activated his tracking protocols. He would inform the commander of N-Tek of his discovery once he had captured the Ultralinks he was detecting. The Ven-geance's sublight engines activated and it slipped silently through the atmosphere towards the equator.
As he considered his approach Ven Ghan found his mind wandering to Max Steel as it frequently did. Initially capturing the Ultralink half of the bond had been remarkably easy. In truth he had expected the former partner of Ja'em Mk'rah to prove more of a challenge. Yet while his combat style was fairly advanced his tactics were almost childish. Only the interference of the powers that ruled Earth and Ven Ghan's own hesitance had saved Steel.
The Ven-gence interrupted his chain of thought, alerting him that they were closing on his current prey. This inability to focus entirely on the task at hand was a weakness that his mentor had tried to train out of the hunter with only limited success. Ven Ghan brought up the display screen and studied the information closely. He chose a cluster of three ultra-links, two fighter class tagging along after a raider class, and honed in on them. None of them registered as named on his database but raider ultralinks were almost always given command positions and he had yet to capture one and not find it confirmed as a known active criminal.
An Earth based scan washed over his ship and he checked to make sure the automated reply was ready for N-Tek. His sensors were indicated he was in the drop zone. He ran one check over his captive Ultralinks. E'rebros Craydon B245, formally fighter class, ready for action. Cr'anick Tybolt T749, former stealth class, ready for action. N'Baro Tybolt T653, former fighter class, energy levels sub-optimum but not so as to interfere with combat effectiveness when combined with the others.
Ven Ghan hesitated a moment and then delayed his plan of attack to bring the N'Baro class ultralink up to full strength. True, the effective force of his reformed ultralink team would not be diminished but functioning while low on fuel shortened the lives of the individual ultralinks. For the majority of his career he had used the ultralinks granted him by the Black Star Council hard, with only thought for the effectiveness of his mission. When they exceeded their effective lifespan he had simply returned their guttering husks to a reclamation center and claimed another. Now he had good reason to avoid the centers of Black Star Council's power. Yet if he were honest with himself that was not the only reason he was being more careful of the ultralinks who aided him. Ever since coming to the understanding with Max Steel he had been more mindful of their care. He did not enjoy dwelling on what relationship existed between him and the rehabilitated ultralinks but some part of him would not let the thought go entirely.
Another scan washed over the ship; this one stronger, more detailed. Ven Ghan made sure his identifying signal was set to the frequency used on this planet ignored it and checked his ultralinks again. The N'baro was at full power. There was still no specific identification on the targets but his computers had suggested several alternate capture protocols.
"Let the hunt begin," he said grimly.
Ven Ghan grasped the humming cylinder of the wormhole generator and activated it. He dropped into a crouch on the branch of a large tree and took a moment to adjust his sensory frill to the changes in pressure, temperature, and humidity. His ultralinks hovered behind him and through the dense foliage he spied the raider analyzing a two wheeled vehicle for weaponization. Ven Ghan selected his pulse rifle and lined the sights up on the raider. The two fighter class weren't near enough for one shot to be effective, but experience told him that they wouldn't wander far from the raider until they either linked or returned to the main swarm. If he waited patiently the three would soon enough cluster close enough for a single shot to disable them all, and Ven Ghan was nothing if not patient. He kept the sights lined up on the raider but the soft rustling of the foliage stirred some deep undefined emotion in him. Instead of the usual dark memories the emotion called up the image of Molly McGrath reaching out to caress Max's face when they reunited on the battle field. His fingers twitched on the rifle and he forcibly refocused his attention on the target.
"¡Oye, baja de allí con las manos en alto!" The shout came from the forest below him and Ven Ghan instinctively warped away.
He landed several yards away from the perimeter the humans had set up and listened with irritation to the shouting that followed his disappearance. At the first sign of trouble the raider and its followers had fled the scene. He could pursue them easily but there were the humans to consider. He ran a search on their uniforms against the database N-Tek had given him. They apparently served some semi official function but their actually right to authority was currently questioned by the planetary authorities. Ven Ghan debated a moment and then activated the portal back to his ship.
"Now where did you go?" he asked as he settled back into the cockpit.
The ultralinks had headed into a tight canyon system. It was unlikely that the picky raider class would find anything to his liking among the wild lands in there and neither fighter class would dare take a host before it. Still there was no way to safely get the Ven-gence close and now that they were startled. Getting an effective single shot would be near impossible. Ven Ghan decided to follow them until they had calmed down enough to come out of the canyons. His ship slowly followed the signals northward as they crept out of the canyon systems. Several more scans washed over him but as they did not come from N'Tek and the human's pseudo military here posed no threat to him he ignored him.
Dawn had broken several hours before when the ultralinks finally rose and begin to descend on an abandoned refueling station where the raider would likely find a suitable host. Ven Ghan once more alighted in the trees and readied his weapon. This time there was no warning shout. A frantic bleat from E'rebros was all the warning he got, enough to allow him to turn and catch the blow on his shoulder, before a surge of electricity blasted through him and nearly shorted out his life support.
"Well Grandma never taught me about picken these fruits but it would probably be best to be as careful as with pawpaw's fore we put him in our basket." A cheerful voice that reminded him of Jefferson Smith called out.
"I agree caution is advised," another voice spoke up. "But remember he hasn't made any aggressive movements yet aside from avoiding contact with Tresse's men."
"So are we going to turn him over to Tresse?" the first voice asked.
"That remains to be seen," the second voice said. "I know we owe him one but I am reluctant to turn-"
"My name is Ven Ghan," Ven Ghan interjected as soon as he could control his voice. There was some sort of energy web wrapped around him, immobilizing him down to his fingers. From the sound of their distressed signals his ultralinks were likewise bound. This was a level of tech beyond what the soldiers he had observed earlier had but it did not feel like N'Tek gear. "My contact on Earth is Commander Forge Ferrus."
"Well, nice to meet you Ven Ghan," the second voice spoke up with a trace of what sounded like humor in his tone. He walked around so Ven Ghan could see him. The man was a middle sized human with blond hair and blue eyes that were locked on the prone alien over the sights of a gleaming silver weapon. "Sorry about the rude introduction but we heard from a friend that you weren't responding to more polite methods and they asked us to gather you up."
"Understood," Ven Ghan replied. "However the ultralinks I was pursuing are escaping. If you could release me-"
"Yeah that's not happening until we get orders from our higher ups," the first voice said cheerfully as two powerful hands picked him up.
Ven Ghan caught a glimpse of a large dark skinned human male as he was tossed over one broad shoulder.
"Really you should consider yourself lucky. If one of the other military units caught you out here, well let's say that this government doesn't exactly have the best history with the treatment of captive sentients."
Ven Ghan would have protested more but his sensor readout showed him that the ultralinks had fled out of range. He gritted his teeth and allowed himself to go limp.
"If you would contact Commander Ferrus," Ven Ghan suggested. "He would be able to explain the need to release me."
"Well I don't know about this Ferrus," the smaller man said swinging his weapon to a less ready position. "We generally report all alien sightings to Unit E."
Ven Ghan hesitated and then nodded slowly. "That was mentioned in my briefing as being an acceptable alternate contact if Commander Ferrus was unavailable."
"Well I'm glad you agree," the smaller man said with a grin. "Folks call me Duke, the one holding you and your bots is Roadblock."
"They are ultralinks," Ven Ghan corrected. "Like the ones that you allowed to escape but reformed."
"Fascinating," Duke said, though his actions suggested he was barely paying attention to Ven Ghan.
He was working over a bulky data processing device in his hands as they approached a low profile aircraft. Roadblock walked up the ramp and had to duck to avoid knocking Ven Ghan against the low ceiling. Ven Ghan was secured in one of the six available seats and they were joined by a third soldier who was not introduced but hovered in the shadows behind Ven Ghan.
"Get us up Roadblock," Duke ordered.
The ship hummed and Ven Ghan was pleased to note that the Ven-gence was following them at a discrete distance on auto pilot.
"So what brings you to Earth?" Roadblock called out cheerfully once they were in the air.
"Hunting ultralinks," Ven Ghan said curtly.
"Where do you hail from?" Roadblock continued.
"The comms function on my ship," Ven Ghans answered.
Roadblock burst into laughter, though his shaking did not translate to the ship, and Duke chuckled.
"No man," Roadblock clarified. "I mean where do you come from? What star do you call home?"
"My homeworld was destroyed by ultralinks," Ven Ghan replied. "I have no home."
There was a long moment of silence as the two humans in front of him exchanged uneasy glances.
"Sorry to hear about that," Dunk finally said.
Ven Ghan accepted what he had come to understand as a standard expression of human compassion with a curt nod.
"So how exactly do you mean-" Roadblock was beginning to ask another question when the comms screen chirped to life. Duke leaned forward to trigger it and a spinning stylized E appeared on the screen.
"Duke," began a curt male voice, "what do you have to report?"
"Agent Fowler," Duke said respectfully. "We intercepted an alien by the name of Ven Ghan at the request of our hosts. They would like us to turn him over to them for trespassing but we figured we'd check with you first."
"Does he have a contact on Earth?" Folwer asked.
"He says a Commander Ferrus," Duke answered.
"Ah, one of Forge's boys," Fowler muttered. "Yes, Ven Ghan. Bounty hunter. Sending you biometrics data to verify by scan."
"We've got it." Duke said. He unstrapped from his seat and carried the data pad over to Ven Ghan. "Excuse me. I need your hand."
Ven Ghan nodded and Duke carefully pulled the green hand out of the energy bindings and pressed it to the surface of the device. Ven Ghan wondered at the primitive nature of the tech compared to what N'Tek had access to but said nothing.
"Well it looks like it's you," Duke said with a grin and the mood in the aircraft relaxed palpably.
"You will meet his escort at the Nevada border," Fowler informed them. "You have no need to question him on what he is doing here. Turn him over and then you can get back to your vacation."
"Vacation," Roadblock said with a snort. "Sure."
"Understood," Duke said. "Joes out. Sorry about the security measures."
"I understand the need for planetary security," Ven Ghan said curtly as he was released and his ultralinks resumed floating around his head. He stretched a bit and turned to glance at the, Joe, behind him. This one was clad all in shadowy cloth that seemed to absorb every spectrum of light and his face was covered with simple lenses. He also carried enough weapons to rival Ven Ghan's own arsenal.
"That's Snake Eyes," Duke said with a smile. "He doesn't talk much."
Ven Ghan exchanged a nod with the silent warrior and turned back to Duke. "When will we reach this border?"
"About ten minutes now that we are airborne," Duke replied.
"The Skyfang can move," Roadblock enthused.
Duke shot his larger friend a look of amused tolerance and returned to his seat. Ven Ghan was still inexpert at reading the more subtle meanings in human language but the few orders this Agent Fowler had given were fairly simple. He had not strictly ordered these soldiers to refrain from questioning Ven Ghan but he had made it clear that such action was not preferred. Unless there was a pressing need they would not interact with him further and that was left up to the discretion of the commanding officer. So Ven Ghan preformed a final inspection of his ultralinks, he did not like how quickly the N'Baro was draining its energy, and prepared to meet with his contact.
"We have a bogey on the radar," Roadblock called out. "North by Northwest."
"What does it look like?" Duke asked. "Will we be docking or landing for the transfer?"
"Well call me a monkey's uncle!" Roadblock burst out with a grin. "It's Max Steel himself!"
"Seriously?" Duke said leaning forward eagerly. "The Copper Canyon superhero kid?"
"That is my contact," Ven Ghan said quietly standing. "There will be no need to dock or land."
He pulled out his warp generator and let himself fall back into the portal. The gasps of his hosts were cut off in the middle as he landed easily in the cockpit of the Ven-gence. His ultralinks fell into their charging ports and he angled the Ven-gence towards Max Steel's signature.
"Hey Bro-Ghan!" Max's voice called out over the speakers. "What's going down?"
"Nothing that I am aware of Max Steel," Ven Ghan replied, surprised at the warmth that welled up in him at the sound of the human's voice.
There was the sound of a sigh from Steel. "He means why did we get dragged out of math class in the middle of the day to come meet you." Steel clarified. "And what are you doing in a Joe craft. How did you meet up with someone so cool? Basically? What's going on?"
"Ah, I understand," Ven Ghan replied, as he matched the Ven-Gence to Max Steel's pace as they flew back toward Copper Canyon. He gave them a short briefing on his failure to capture the three ultralinks and his resulting capture by the Joes.
"Don't worry about it," Max assured him. "I don't know what they were doing that far south but they all seem to make their way to Copper Canyon sooner or later anyway. You have a better chance of catching them if you hang out with us anyway."
"That is a logical course of action," Ven Ghan agreed.
The rest of the flight was passed in seemingly idle chatter between the three of them. Ven Ghan cloaked his ship as they approached the city proper and was surprised when they headed towards the heart of the city rather than the outskirts.
"Did N'Tek relocate their base?" Ven Ghan asked.
"Well yeah," Max replied. "But it is getting late and I was planning on making Mom blueberry pancakes for dinner tonight."
"It is breakfast for dinner night in the McGrath house," Steel informed him brightly. "I'm making the syrup fresh from Marion berries."
"No explosions or fires this time Steel," Max reminded him.
"Please! That only happened once, or twice, anyway I figured out why it happened so tonight will be perfect!" Steel insisted.
"And you're invited," Max said. "Do you like blueberry pancakes?"
"My nutrition intake is limited to my liquid supplements," Ven Gan said. "I have not ingested solid food since I was," his voice cut out at the memory of that last meal and he reset his synthesizer. "For many years." He finished. "I will continue to hunt for ultralinks. Thank you for the escort."
"Hey, hey, hey," Steel interrupted. "Don't rush off. You can drink your space smoothie while we eat our pancakes. We just want a chance to hang out with you without anybody shooting at anybody."
Ven Ghan hesitated, but the lure of actual social interaction was, pleasant to think on. "Agreed," he finally said.
Max Steel gave a whoop of pleasure and proceeded to angle his flight into the city. They came to a stop over the structure where they resided and called out as the Ven-Gence passed over them.
"Hey, where are you going?" Max called out. "My place is here."
"I will secure my ship at a safe distance for security," Ven Ghan replied. "I will be with you momentarily."
"Gotcha!" Steel called out. "Time to make syrup!"
Ven Ghan found a reasonable place to conceal his ship and honed in on Max's turbo energy signature. He activated his wormhole generator and ported into a small, clean room. Max was sitting on a white chair working at some strategy game on his phone. However on Ven Ghan's appearance he yelped and held up his hands as if to ward off the alien.
"Hey! A little privacy here!" Max yelled.
"I am sorry?" Ven Ghan said tilting his head to the side.
"Out!" Max yelled frantically. "Out of this room! Out the door! Any other room in the house!"
Ven Ghan glanced uneasily at the door Max indicated, unsure of what he had done wrong to earn this greeting. However at that moment the door opened and Steel appeared.
"Come out here Ven my man!" Steel called out eagerly. The ultralink was wearing a small square of cloth hung around his upper portion on a band and tied around his back. "Humans get really fussy about privacy when they are," as Ven Ghan followed Steel into a much larger room the ultralink leaned in near Ven Ghan's head and lowered his voice, "voiding waste products."
"Is that what he was doing?" Ven Ghan asked in surprise.
"Yes!" Max yelled from behind the now closed door. "This is a bathroom! It is what humans do in a bathroom. You do not teleport into bathrooms!"
"My apologies," Ven Ghan offered.
"Eh, no problem," Steel assured him as the utralink darted over to pick up a utensil on the counter and began stirring a pot of purple liquid that was heating over a thermo coil. "Every room in the apartment has a different level of privacy associated with it. I had to learn them all too. Ha! I had to learn them all twice! Does this look right to you?"
Steel held up the utensil and let the liquid drip back into the pan.
"What is its appearance supposed to be?" Ven Ghan asked uncertainly.
"Why syrupy of course." Steel said as if that were explanation enough. "Do you like my apron? Molly made it for me."
Ven Ghan was saved having to respond to that when Max came out of the 'bathroom'. The human seemed to have forgotten his discomfort of a moment before and was smiling widely.
"Welcome to Casa McGrath," he said with a sweeping gesture at their surroundings. "Steel is in the kitchen. The most important place in the house. It has the food. For the record, refrigerator, stove, microwave, sink, and the rest is cabinets. That is the fun part, the living room with the television and couch. My bedroom is through there and mom's is through there, this," he pointed to a third door, "is the spare room. You can stay there tonight if you want."
"Steel mentioned different levels of security for each room." Ven Ghan observed. "Perhaps it would be best if you informed me of those. You were clearly displeased when I appeared in the bathroom."
"Clearly," Max said, his face distorting in a look that combined both displeasure and humor. "So yeah, never port into the bathroom. Never port into Mom's room. Ask before you port into my room. The rest of the place is up for grabs."
"Understood," Ven Ghan said with a curt nod.
"So I have to get the pancakes started," Max said, reaching out and pulling a piece of cloth similar in shape to the one Steel was wearing off the wall and tying it around his back. "You can just kick back and relax until dinner is ready. Do you need anything to drink?"
"Not at the moment." Ven Ghan assured him.
"He means sit down wherever you like," Steel said without looking up from his stirring.
Ven Ghan glanced around and chose one of the round seats that let him observe the processes going on in the 'kitchen'. Max appeared to be performing a fairly complex chemical process that resulted in flat golden discs that he stored in a warming oven. Both Max and Steel kept up their seemingly constant chatter while they worked.
"And then I said to Berto that there was no way he was getting me to cross the vectors." Steel was saying.
Max burst into laughter.
"Did you understand that?" Ven Ghan asked.
"Not really," Max said as he flipped another pancake. "Way to sciency. But I got the gist."
"So what about you?" Steel asked. "Max, hold the cup please. Do you have any good stories Ven Ghan?"
"Easy there speedy," Max said as he held the volume marked container under the stream of syrup. "Yeah I'm sure you have lots of stories. Catching ultralinks, beautiful space girls, that sort of thing."
"Story telling is a common practice among bounty hunters," Ven Ghan said. "But I was never considered particularly skilled at it."
"Come on, give us a story," Steel pressed.
Before Ven Ghan could speak however the front door opened and Molly McGrath came in.
"Hey Mom," Max called out. "The pancakes are nearly done and we have a guest!"
"I see," Molly let her gaze linger on Ven Ghan a moment and he was aware of the caution in it, though not the open hostility he had seen during the battle with Makino. The woman clearly didn't entirely trust him yet but she was relaxing in his presence.
"Agent McGrath," Ven Ghan nodded respectfully at her.
"Please call me Molly here in the house," she said giving him a cautious smile. She leaned over and quickly pressed her lips to the side of Max's head and then Steel's. "I am going to change." She walked over to the door that led to her bedroom and walked through.
"So, story," Steel said as he began setting out various utensils on the counter.
"My own stories are repetitive," Ven Ghan said. "I capture ultralinks and you have already witnessed that action personally."
"Yeah, don't remind me," Steel said, rolling his eye expressively.
"Perhaps you would like to hear a tale of Mk'rah." Ven Ghan offered hopefully. "They were some of the most frequently told stories among the Black Star Hunters."
Max nearly dropped the plates he was carrying and Steel winced perceptibly.
"That would be awesome," Max said softly as he began to carefully place the plates on the table.
Ven Ghan was going to ask about the reaction when Molly reentered wearing different clothing. This set was looser, more flowing.
"This kitchen smells heavenly," Molly declared sniffing the air. "Where are the pancakes?"
"Right here," Max said pulling the discs out of the oven.
Molly sat down and Max carefully placed two of the discs before her and two on his own plate. "Ven Ghan can't have any," Max explained, sitting down across from his mother.
"Syrup?" Steel asked holding the container up.
"Please," Molly replied.
Steel poured the liquid first over Molly's pancakes and then over Max's before setting the syrup down and looking expectantly at the woman.
"Well, let's dig in then," Molly said.
"I do enjoy watching them eat," Steel said, floating over to hover at Ven Ghan's shoulder.
"Your syrup is delicious Steel," Molly said, smiling at the ultralink.
Though it wasn't aimed at him the look caused something painful to coil inside of Ven Ghan. He stood abruptly and gave Molly a curt nod.
"Thank you for your hospitality. I must check on my ship." Ven Ghan said as he readied his portal generator.
"Hey," Max protested around a mouthful of pancake. "Stay a little longer. You promised us a story."
Ven Ghan hesitated but something was stirring within him. Something he had been successfully ignoring for many years now.
"I will fulfill that obligation at a later date. One of my ultralinks has been unwell and I must see to it." Ven Ghan said. "Farewell." He triggered his portal and stepped back into it, coming out the other side onto their balcony. He let the cool air play over his sensory frill and leaned back against the wall of their building. He did need to see to the N'Baro unit. Restoring it without aid would be tricky, but explaining why he needed it restored, why he wouldn't simply want it replaced, to the Council was out of the question. It was all part of these odd emotions that had been growing anew with him since he had first encountered Max and Steel.
"Perhaps this, is a world full of possibilities," he whispered to the wind.
He glanced in the window and caught a glimpse of Molly leaning over to nuzzle Max's forehead and the swell of emotion within him was terrifying in its strength. He warped back to his ship and clung to the controls for a long moment before he fell into the comforting routine of checking his equipment.