Chapter 2

"Max, I know you're at least a little curious as to who she is." Steel said, hovering near the human's face.

"Okay, I'll admit it. I am 'a little curious', but I'm not gonna stalk her to find out who she is. She's my . . . fight . . . helper. I'll probably find out eventually." Max said as he ate his scrambled eggs at the table in the dining room, still in his pajamas.

"You mean she's your trainer."

"Eh, I wouldn't say that. She's helping me . . . advance my combat skills."

"She's training you because she fights better than you. Max, you're in denial."

"Tomato, ta-ma-toe." Steel rolled his eye.

"I'm not gonna argue. But I still think we should investigate on her. I mean, doesn't she raise questions. Like; who is she? How come we've never met her before? If she's one of the strongest people in N-Tek, how come we've never even heard her name before? Why are we being introduced to her now? Don't you want these questions answered?" He asked, staring Max down. The human took another bite of eggs and looked downward. He stared at his plate for a significant amount of time before locking eyes with his robotic friend.

"You know what? You're actually right Steel. I mean, I think I can understand why she didn't want you to train with us. She wanted to see my own combat strength just in case we ever get separated. I get that. But why are we just meeting her? If what Berto said was true, that she's second best in regards to Kat, then why haven't we met with her before? I've never heard Uncle Ferrus, nor Jefferson, say her name for that matter. It's almost like she didn't exist until two days ago, when I trained with her." Max violently stuffed a pancake piece into his mouth. "Nyea, mike mwhy blah be nnoeing vooo dwaayyy wibbb haaaa doowww?" Deadpanning him, Steel rolled his eyes and laid on the kitchen table.

"Even though you're uttering incoherent sentences like an infant, I agree with you, Max. I agree with you."

"Hey Uncle Ferrus." Max waltzed into the brightly lit office and leaned on the door frame, he folded his arms over his chest and sighed loudly. The commander glanced up at him before looking back down at his desk.

"Yes Max?" He asked. He had the edge in his tone that he always did when he was irritated. Like that one time when Max . . . well, every time Max asked him for something, really.

"Do you know where my mom is? I haven't seen her in awhile."

"She's probably off running THI." He grumbled, still focusing on the papers on his desk.

"What are you doing?"

"Dealing with important matters. So if you don't mind-"

"Oh I don't mind, please continue." Max said down in a nearby chair and watched as his uncle let out a loud sigh.

"Max what do you want?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Max you obviously want something, what do you want?" He slammed his stylus on the transparent desk and looked towards the young teen. "And don't even say you're bored because then you would've just hung out with Berto. So please, Max, what on earth do you want?" Max looked at him with wide eyes and, after an tense moment of silence, laughed tensely.

"Well, uh, you see, um, I-uh" Just with one look from his uncle and he knew it was time to talk. He sighed and slumped his shoulders. "Okay, you caught me. Look, I . . . okay . . . " He took a deep breath and looked at the floor beneath his feet. "Okay. There's this girl, and . . . I like her, like I really like her. And I think she might like me to. And I always get this weird feeling around her. Like . . . I don't know, but-"

"Ooooookay, I get it. I-uh I do. Every boy, uh, gets this 'feeling'. It just means that you're growing and . . . you're looking at the world in a different way and . . . stuff is changing. Sooooo . . . yeah." Ferris rubbed the back of his neck and looked at his nephew with cringed eyes. His lips were pursed tightly and his face resembled a tomato. Max lifted an eye brow.

"What?" Ferris ran a hand down his face and groaned.

"Okay, lets . . . take a walk, Max. C'mon, I'll tell you about when I had this talk with my old man." Ferrus walked around the computer and put a hand on the young Max's shoulder. Him and his uncle walked out of the room with Ferrus saying, "Lets start off with the birds and the bees."

Steel rose up from underneath the chair Max had sat on and hovered closer to Forge's computer. He tapped his screen and narrowed his eye in thought. He then gasped in realization and frantically typed things down. He continued to press down on the keys until a certain phrase passed his line of vision. He pressed on it and watched as a screen holographed its way in front of him. He could see a page of almost every N-Tek soldier's face lined up side by side, their information underneath their profile picture. He flipped to several more pages until he landed in the 'C' section. Once there, he checked every first name that began with an 'R' and looked for a specific brunette. The light in his eye shone brighter as he tapped on her picture and opened up her profile.

Surname: Collins

Given name: Riley

DOB: 19 August 1997

Sex: F

Nationality: United States of America; Ireland

Place of Birth: Copper Canyon, U.S.A.

Date of enrollment: 13 March 2009

Eye color: Green

Hair color: Brown

Steel read those basic facts and tried to scroll down to continue, but the page wouldn't move. "Oh don't tell me that's it?!" He exclaimed. He tried to scroll down the page, grunting with each second, but groaned in frustration when the page still remained still. "You've got to be kidding me!" He swiped at the screen once more and saw that the page flew to the left, giving him access to a second one. "Oh."

Relations: Margaret Collins -mother (deceased); Jim McGrath - mentor (deceased); Avery Hudson - cousin

"Whoa, whoa, what? She knew Max's dad?" He swiped at the page, but it didn't move. He slumped and quickly exited out of the pages. He stared at the blank screen in front of him and narrowed his eye. Before he could open another page, he heard footsteps begin to approach the door. With a wide eye, Steel flew next to the door and stood flat against the wall.

"I hope that helps you with your, err, problem." Ferrus clapped his nephew on the back as they both walked back inside of his office.

"Y-yeah. It does." While Ferrus walked back over to screen, Steel zoomed out of the open door behind Max. "I'm gonna go now and, uh, do stuff."

"Not stuff like Anthony I hope." Ferrus winked. Max's right eye twitched. He awarded his uncle with a timid chuckle and exited the room. He walked down the hallway, turned the corner and then reached the end of that hallway.

"Did you do it?" He asked. Steel nodded, to which Max gave a wide grin to. "Well? What'd you find out?"

"Max, she used to work with your dad." He said bluntly. The McGrath furrowed his eye brows and stared at Steel expectantly. "I mean, judging by what her age would've been, she wouldn't have been any older than a young infant, still learning her first words. But in her profile it said she was supposed to study underneath him. Which probably means your mom knows her. If we can get your mom to spill-"

"This opens up a lot more questions than before." The brunet ran a hand through his hair and rubbed his eyes. "Ugh. I wish they would just tell us what was happened with my dad and its results. It's so aggravating having to get snippets all the time. They only add on to the questions we have and make the pile of lies bigger." Leaning against the nearest wall, he glanced at his alien friend. "What do you think we should do?"

"I'd say investigate her more, and by investigate, I mean do exactly what you didn't want to do." Max groaned and plopped down to the floor. Steel roughly patted his head and floated away. "Let's go hang out with Berto so we can go home with a big smiles." A smiley face appeared on Steel's screen, and Max couldn't help but chuckle. He rose to his feet and followed behind the floating Ultra Link.

"Not gonna try to kill me today, right?" Max chuckled, walking towards the center of the room. Berto and Steel watched the interaction from the control room, listening into the mics for their conversation. Riley stretched her arm over her chest and stared at him.

"Do your enemies try to kill you?" Without replying, Max pulled his arm behind his head. Riley, still watching him, swung her arms back and forth and looked up towards the control room. She gave a thumbs up and the scenery changed instantly. The white, green, and blue room was being replaced with the a local neighborhood at night. Houses lined up on the sidewalks and cars parked on the street. The city lights were still on, allowing the two to see each other. In front of each house were a pile of trash bags and garbage cans, waiting for the dump truck to swing by.

The still stretching Max felt a poke on his shoulder, he looked up and met eyes with Riley. "Since I almost killed you last time, let's have an easy day today." Max refrained from sighing. "Try to take this teddy bear away from me." She held up a brown stuffed bear to his face. Its perfectly made red bow tie and well shined button eyes distracted him.

"Awe, it's so cute." He cooed. He reached his hands out to touch it, but paused when Riley pulled it to her chest.

"You want it? Gonna have to get it from me." She held it to her left side and took a fighting stance. "C'mon McGrath, let's see what you got."

Max, then, charged at her head on. He ran towards her at full speed and bent his neck as to head butt her. He almost fell over when he ran a farther distance than necessary. He turned around and saw the smirking opponent standing behind him. He swung his leg out to kick her, but she jumped over it and instead, using her only free hand, flipped over his shoulders. Now in front of him, she shoved his chest roughly, causing him to stagger back a few paces. He looked around and grabbed the nearest trash can; he took off its lid and threw it at her using a little bit of his TURBO energy. Without so much as blinking, she caught it and threw it back towards him. It was at a quicker pace and almost took his head off had he not jumped to his right. He looked back at the lid and furrowed his eye brows. There were two sets of finger marks on the side of it, his being one of them. He looked at her and stood up slowly.

"It looks like they're playing Frisbee." Berto commented. Steel turned to him and deadpanned. The scientist gave an awkward laugh before clearing his throat and focusing back on the two down below.

"You're strong." Max said bluntly. Riley's mouth twitched and she shrugged.

"Guess I am. Now, less talking more taking." She regained her fighting position and waved the bear in his face. He huffed and remained still. After a few seconds of waiting, Riley rolled her eyes and ran towards him. He ducked when he noticed her foot was coming towards his face, however, she then stepped on his shoulder and lunged to the fire escape on the building behind him. She ran up the stairs, and stopped when she reached the roof. Max, still on the ground, watched her as she looked down at him. "Let's play a game of cat and mouse." She smiled.

Then, she ran from the edge of the building and out of Max's sight. He took a few steps backward and jumped onto the roof as well. He looked around and caught sight of her jumping onto the next building to his right, so he ran after her, blue streaks being left in his path and the white of his eyes glowing due to his TURBO energy. Seeing that he was catching up, he pushed himself harder and reached his hand out, almost touching her shoulder. His fingers barely missed it and instead scratched her back. She looked over her shoulder at him and stopped so abruptly, Max almost ran into her. She grabbed his extended wrist and threw him over her head. With a yelp, he landed on the building and gasped in shock. "Ow. " He mumbled. He pushed himself up and looked back at her.

Shrugging, she gave him an innocent smile and ran back the other way. He chased her, having to use his energy once again. 'C'mon Max, think.' Once he was close to her again, he threw his fist out. She turned and reached for it, going to repeat the same move, but Max then kicked her ankle and had them both falling. Before she could get up, he crawled on top of her and grabbed her wrist. Now trapping her, he used his free hand to reach for the bear. He pulled on its leg, but couldn't get it out of her grasp. He pulled on it harder, but stopped when he saw that it's leg was on the verge of breaking.

"Don't kill the bear, Max." She warned. He sighed and looked back down at her. She raised her eye brow and gave him a wide smile. With one quick movement, he poked the side of her neck, causing her to flinch dramatically. Her grasp on the bear loosened and he used this advantage to pry it from her hands. He stood back up to his feet and grinned at the now free ball of fuzz in his hand.

"Looks like the cat won this time." He joked. He offered her a hand, but she swatted at it.

"Sure about that?" She stood up so fast, Max barely had time to register it. She roundhouse kicked his head and had him falling over the edge of the building. He yelled in terror as he fell, but grunted when his back landed on the fire escape. Riley held up her thumb to the sky and pointed it downwards. The scenery of the neighborhood vanished and was replaced with the regular walls of N-Tek. Max looked with wide eyes as they went crashing towards the floor. He hollered once again and let out a whine as his back connected with the floor. Riley's foot landed right next to his face. He groaned as he rubbed the back of his head and sat up. "Good job today, McGrath. You're getting better. Just need to remember not to kill the bear." She ruffled his hair and walked towards the door. It opened and let her out, leaving Max alone in the training room.