Chapter 3
Max wasn't sure what was harder, trying to hide that she was Max Steel from her friends, or trying to get answers about everything she and Steel were trying to figure out from her Uncle Farris. It seemed like every time they got close, one way or another, he would shut them out. So far, what they had found, or believe they found was that Steel was ultralink, like the ones they had been fighting for months now, and that there was another Max Steel before them. Not only that, but apparently, N-Tech had an ulterior mission that they were in no hurry to share with them. Max and Steel were getting rapidly frustrated with N-Tech not telling them anything about what they wanted to know, and so many times now they had cut corners, or had to go through back channels to find even a hint to what it was they were searching for. But it seemed that the more they dug, more questions they found.
But in that time, they had also found several new TURBO Modes. Scuba, Stealth, Speed, and Cannon, all of which Steel had unlocked, it seemed, in their worst situations. But, as far as Max was concerned, better late than never. Tonight, Max was debating with Steel about revealing to Carter that she was Max Steel.
"Max, don't get me wrong, I like Carter, but what he does know can hurt him." Steel warned her.
"I know, but not knowing could hurt our relationship. Carter is not just some guy I have a crush on, he's one of my closest friends, he's someone I trust." Max said as she paced her room deciding how she was going to do it.
"I'm not going to talk you out of this, am I?" Steel asked sounding defeated.
"Doubt it." Max answered.
"Didn't think so." Steel said admitting defeat.
"Then it's decided, tomorrow, I tell Carter that Max McGrath is actually Max Steel." Max said laying down to go to bed.
The next day, Max invited Carter to the Smoothie Slope and hinted that she had something she needed to tell him. But, if she was being honest, she was nervous about telling him. Not because of the risk of him knowing, but because she was afraid he wouldn't believe her, or he would, and not want to see her again. But, Max felt that he deserved to know the truth. At last, Carter met up with her and Max took deep breathes preparing herself for this moment.
"You said you had something you wanted to tell me?" Carter said as he met up with her.
"Yes, but it's really important that you not tell anyone." Max said getting up and leading Carter to the back of the smoothie joint.
"You're not going to propose to me, are you?" Carter laughed.
"No, it's not that." Max said feeling her hands start to shake with what she was about to do.
"You better be ready for this, Max, because one you tell him, there's no going back." Steel warned her through their link.
"Yes, I know." Max hissed.
"You know, what?" Carter asked.
"No, that's not what I meant." Max corrected herself. "Look, Carter, what I wanted to tell you was," Max took a deep breath and opened her backpack, letting Steel out for Carter to see.
"Whoa, is that, no way." Carter said seeing him.
"Yes, it is." Max answered. "Carter, the truth is, I'm Max Steel." Max said feeling both a huge weight being lifted off her shoulders, but also like a huge rock had dropped in her stomach.
Carter just stood there with a look of shock and disbelief on his face. Max felt her pulse race, anxious to see what Carter would do next. What did he think about all this? Did he believe her? Would he ever want to see her again knowing this? Next thing Max knew, Carter was throwing his arms around her in a hug.
"That is so cool!" he said swinging her around in excitement. "Show me what you can do!" he said when he finally put her down.
"You got it." Max said as she and Steel linked up and transformed into Flight Mode.
She offered Carter her arm and he draped his over her shoulder, allowing her to get a hold around him as they took off. As they flew out of Coper Canyon, Max felt a sense of relief knowing that Carter now knew that she was Max Steel. Carter certainly seemed to be happy to know now too. As they flew over the desert, Max and Steel both explained to Carter what made Max Steel Max Steel. How their TURBO modes worked, where her powers came from and about N-Tech. Unfortunately, Carter did ask some of the questions that Max and Steel were still in the dark on, so they couldn't really tell him much when it came to that. But, at least they were having a good time and at least Max didn't have to hide from Carter anymore.
Unfortunately, their time was cut short when out of nowhere, a fireball narrowly missed Max and Carter. Much to Max's horror, Elementor, a fusion of the four Elementors into one being, was attacking.
"Friend of yours?" Carter asked seeing him.
"Just the opposite." Steel answered.
Max and Steel flew as fast as they could, but Elementor was gaining on them fast.
'Of times for him to pick a fight with us.' Max thought frustrated. "Steel, you've gotta get Carter out of here." Max said to her partner.
"What, no!" Steel answered. "Max, I'm supposed to protect you!"
"And we have to protect Carter, and we can't have him here while we fight Elementor."
"But Max,"
"Look, don't argue. I'll be fine." Max stopped him. "Just lock me in flight mode and get Carter out of here. I'll hold him off and we'll join back up once Carter is safe."
They spotted a cave. They flew in, buying them a few seconds for her and Steel to split and for Steel and Carter to get away. Max flew out getting Elementor's attention.
"You want me, come and get me." Max said flying further out into the desert.
Max tried as hard as she could to keep some distance between her and Elementor, but Elementor caught up with her rather quickly. Soon, she found herself cornered in a crevice cut in a cliff.
"Nowhere to run, Max Stell!" Elementor said when he caught up with her.
"Who needs to run when I can fly?" Max said bursting up into the sky.
With a sharp turn, she was able to push a large boulder over on top of Elementor.
"That's the way the canyon crumbles." She laughed hoping that would buy her some time.
But, she saw that had spoken too soon. "No, this is!" Elementor said hurling a horde of blouders in her direction.
Max did her best to dodge, but one boulder clipped her from the right and sent spiraling to the ground. The landing was hard, but Max quickly got up and tried to take off again, but she found herself pinned by another boulder.
"It's over, Max Steel." Elementor said knocking her lights out.
When Max regained consciousness, she tried to look around, but there was hardly any light, and she couldn't move. When her eyes adjusted, she saw that she was deep inside a cave, with her being restrained to one of the stalagmites. She kept fighting to pull herself free, but the restraints were rock solid, literally. Elementor soon appeared again, carrying some strange device.
"Prepare to become part of us, Max Steel." Elementor said charging it.
"No!" Max pleaded.
The device activated, sending a strong pulse through her body. As much as it was hurting her, she didn't feel it absorbing her into Elementor. After what seemed like forever the device shut off, and Max was just grateful that she at least had a moment to breathe and try to figure a way to get herself out of there.
'At least Carter is safe.' She thought as she was looking for a way out. Out of nowhere, she saw Steel appear to her.
"Steel, am I glad to see you." She said quietly.
"I told you we should have stayed together." Steel told her.
But just as they were about to link up, Steel was swept away from her in a strong gust of wind.
"No!" Max called out for him
"Of course, no wonder the fusion didn't work." Elementor said grabbing Steel. "We need the ultralink with the human in order for the fusion to take place." He said coming back for Max.
"Hey ugly!" Max heard Carter yell.
She turned her head to see him hurling a large rock at him. Max was horrified to see Carter was still there. Elementor gave chase to Carter, and Max started fighting harder to get free. Carter got to high ground and leaped on top of Elementor and smashed a rock into the orbs in Elementor's forehead. Elementor gave a shriek of pain and threw Carter off in doing so. Max finally broke her restraints and flew to catch Carter before he could hit the ground.
"Nice catch." Carter said when they landed.
"No problem." Max answered thankful her face plate hid her blush. "I thought I told you to get him out of here." Max said turning to Steel when he met up with them.
"I tried, but he's as stubborn as you." Steel answered.
"Friends don't leave friends behind, Max." Carter said taking her hand.
Elementor turned his attention to them again. Switching to strength mode, Max told Carter to hide. Max and Steel were able to hold their own for a moment, but Elementor had home field advantage. Just as it looked like they were done for, Cytro swooped in and pulled them out of the way of a fire blast heading for them.
"Mind if I crash this party?" Berto's voice came through.
"Thanks for the back-up, Berto." Steel answered.
"Came as quick as I could after I got your message, Steel." Berto answered. "Though, I didn't know you gave me directions to Elementor's home address."
"Long story." Max answered.
"N-Tech's on their way." Berto said dispensing the TURBO blaster.
Before Steel could link in, however, Elementor literally knocked Cytro's lights out and Max was knocked off her feet. Before she could get up again, Elementor had her pinned.
"Now, the fusion." He said activating the device.
Again, a strong pulse shot through their body. And again, as much as it was hurting the both of them, there was no fusion between them and Elementor. Thankfully, Carter was as fast a think as much as he was brave. He threw another rock, hitting Elementor in the links. Using that moment of distraction, he was able to throw Max and Steel the TURBO blaster. Elementor again tried to use the device on them, but Max and Steel, just as quickly, were able to activate the blaster, causing the two beams of energy to meet. The energy from the device was gaining ground.
"We need more power, Max, or we're done for!" Steel warned her.
"I'll give it all I got." Max said straining to generate more TURBO energy.
That burst was enough to destroy the device and blew Elementor away. Unfortunately, the explosion left Carter unconscious.
"Steel, please tell me he's okay." Max pleaded as Steel scanned him over.
"That blast had so many beta particles and ionic distortions, there's telling how it may have affected him." Said Steel. "It may have mutated his blood stream, metamorphosed his DNA, or,"
"Max Steel?" Carter said waking up cutting him off. "What happened, and why am I here? For that matter, where is here?"
"Or it may have simply wiped out his short-term memory." Steel finished.
"You're kidding?" Max said feeling let down and agitated.
"Max?" she turned hearing Jefferson come in.
"Jefferson, is Elementor,"
"Gone, disappeared like the wind as soon as we showed up." Jefferson answered. "Who is this?" he asked seeing Carter.
"This is, a citizen." Max answered. "And it would mean a lot to me if you could make sure that he gets home safely."
"Sure thing." Jefferson said leading Carter away.
"Citizen, thank you, for saving my life." Max said before Carter had gotten far.
"What, I saved Max Steel?" Carter said surprised. "The guys at school are never going to believe this." He said walking off with Jefferson.
"Does this mean we have to tell him who we are all over again?" Steel asked sounding concerned.
"Nah, let's hold off on that." Max answered as they linked up and switched to flight mode. "You were right, Steel, what he does know can hurt him."
"That's my girl." Steel said as they flew home.
If she was being honest, she wished Carter did still remember that she Max Steel. That would mean he wouldn't have to keep lying to him, but for now, it was probably best he didn't know the truth. After seeing that he was willing to put himself in danger for her even though she was the one who was supposed to be protecting him, it was best he didn't know that Max McGrath was Max Steel.
After a few weeks, Max soon began to question if being Max Steel was helping her at all, especially as far as her school work was concerned. Today, her science teacher, Mr. Thornhill was threating her, saying that if she didn't get her grades up, he was not only going to flunk her, but see that she was expelled from school entirely. Kendra and Carter did give her a sense of hope with the science fair, with it being 50% of their grade. That was until they told her they were due that day. And it only got worse when Mr. Thornhill basically ransacked her backpack and found Steel hiding in her lunchbox. Max wasn't sure what scarier, her not having a real project ready, or Mr. Thornhill having Steel.
That night, Max was able to sneak into his classroom to link up with Steel. But she wasn't sure what to do now, without a project, she was going to fail. She wasn't sure how, but she convinced Steel to stay just until the science fair was over.
"Wait, what am I supposed to be?" Steel asked before she left.
"I don't know, I'm sure you'll figure something out." She said jumping back through the window and running home.
The next day, at the science fair, she went searching for Steel. "Where are you, buddy?" she asked through their link.
"Up here, behind the curtain." Steel answered.
Max found him behind the curtain and they linked up. "What happened to you, Steel? What are you doing back here?"
"I don't know." Steel answered. "Mr. Thornhill just put me here after probing at me for hours last night."
"I'm sorry, you were right, this was a bad idea." Max answered. "Let's get you out of here." She said as she turned to leave, but Mr. Thornhill stopped her and told her to wait down with all the others.
Max was sure that she had failed for sure if Thornhill hadn't even put up her 'project' for display. But she got quite a surprise when Thornhill had chosen her as the winner of the science fair but neither she nor Steel were very happy with what he thought Steel was.
"For your fully automated lunchbox warmer." Thornhill announced.
"He's gonna kill me." Max said aloud.
"Yep." Steel answered through their link.
After the science fair was over, Max went to find Steel, but he was gone. She found Mr. Thornhill and pleaded with to give her Steel back, only to find out that he had sold him to some anonymous buyer for her 'project'. Max ran out and tried to catch the guys before they took off, but it was too late. Her only option now was to go to N-Tech for their help to find Steel. By the time she had gotten there, she only had 30 minutes before TURBO energy reached critical mass. They were able to track down Steel, unfortunately, he was with an old not so friendly. Extroyer, a human that had some way or another ended up with an ultralink embedded in his body, had him linked in with his ultralink and was using him to further his transformation powers.
Now Extroyer was trying to tear their jet apart, and with Max struggling to keep her TURBO energy contained, they were running out of time. Forge and Max confronted Extroyer on the hull with Forge keeping Extroyer distracted while Max scaled the ugly beast as fast as she could to get to Steel.
"Steel, it's okay, I'm here." Max said as she worked to pry Steel loose of the contraption Extroyer had used to link him in.
She was able to get him free, keeping him from Extroyer, however was a different story. Forge was able to make Extroyer lose his grip on him, but in doing so, sent Steel over the edge of the jet. Ax, not entirely thinking, jumped after him. When she reached him, she got a hold of his hand.
"Thanks for jumping after me, but you do know I have a hover feature." Steel reminded her.
"Right, sorry," Max answered. She felt herself about to go critical.
"Hang on, I got it." Steel said linking with her, absorbing the TURBO energy that she had built up. "You must have really been worried about me."
"I was, because I was afraid I was going to lose you." Max answered. "I was losing my mind at the thought of never seeing you again."
"Ah, you do love me." Steel teased her.
"Steel, maybe we should stop ourselves from hitting the ground." Max hinting that they were still falling.
"Right." Steel answered activating their armor and locking it in place. Unfortunately, Extroyer cut their reunion short catching up with them in the free fall and pulling Steel of her chest plate. But Max wasn't about to let Steel go again. She and Extroyer tussled over him for a minute.
"Let go, Max Steel, or it'll be both of us going out." Extroyer demanded.
"If that's what it comes to, then fine, but I'm not letting him go, never again." Max said keeping her grip on her best friend.
"You're even crazier than I thought, Max Steel." Extroyer said letting go and transforming into a spider.
Max and Steel linked up in time to change into flight mode with just enough time to stop them both from crashing landing a bed of rock. Extroyer was driven off, and Max and Steel went home after a long day. Both were exhausted, but both agreed that they couldn't be happier to be together again. Max had to admit, she had learned a hard lesson that day, and Steel said he learned something too.
"What's that?" Max asked.
"That I'm not the only one looking out for us. You were there for me today, and I appreciate that."
"You say it's your job to protect me, well it's my job to protect you." Max answered as she laid down to go to sleep.
Following that incident, Max and Steel saw that their training at N-Tech was getting more and more intense. And both Max and Steel were getting more and more desperate for answers. At point, Steel thought he could hypnotize Berto into telling them everything they wanted to know. And while he didn't know about ultrlinks, somehow, he did know about a new mode, Cannon mode, which proved to be a huge advantage to them in their next run in with Elementor. But it still left them wondering where Steel came from, what had her father been working on, who was the other Max Steel, and what was N-Tech's true mission?
At one point, they did uncover N-Tech's network of transmitters, but they still had no idea what it was for. And they again found out that no one at N-tech was in a hurry to tell them anything. But one day, after months of digging, Forge finally pulled them aside, and said he was ready to tell them everything. But before he could even tell them, they were alerted to a breach in the network of transmitters. Forge revealed to them that the transmitters were there to protect the earth, but they weren't told from what. No with Dread ready to launch an all-out missile strike to take them down.
By the time they got to the launch site, Dread was ready to arm and launch them. Max and Steel, along side N-Tech, were able to stop Dread from launching them, but only for so long. Dread succeeded in launching his missiles, but Max and Steel were not ready to call it quits just yet.
"Dread made a critical mistake, he left his launch key behind." Steel said looking at the panel. "With a powerful enough energy surge, we can use it as a guidance system to blast out those missiles on their own flight path."
"No, it's too risky." Forge said.
"If we don't do this, then the transmitters will go down and the Earth will be vulnerable." Max answered. "It's a risk we have to take."
"Ready?" Steel asked linking up with her."
"Ready as I'll ever be." Max answered.
Max generated as much TURBO energy as she could, but it still wasn't enough. Steel also started to use his own reserves to make up the difference, much to Max's horror.
"Steel, no!" Max said trying to stop him. "You need those reserves to survive."
"You just don't want to share credit with me for helping you save the world." Steel teased her.
But together, they were able to complete the surge and the TURBO energy was sent on its path after the missiles.
"Steel, we did it." Max said feeling drained. She looked over and saw Steel unresponsive beside her. "No, Steel, you can't be gone. Come buddy, say something." She pleaded feeling her eyes getting wet.
"Something." She heard Steel reply weakly.
"Oh, buddy, you're okay." Max said so happy to see him okay.
"Yeah, we did it." Steel said as Max linked him with her.
But just as it seemed link things were finally looking up, all their hopes about stopping Dread and keeping the Earth safe were dashed in an instant. One by one, the missiles self-destructed and Max's TURBO energy took out the transmitters. No sooner had the transmitters been taken out, then they were seeing what looked to be space ships entering Earth's atmosphere. But the biggest shock that came to Max and Steel was Forge telling them that it was Steel's people on that ship, he was one of them, ultralinks alos known as Makino. Back at N-Tech, Steel, feeling rather upset about finding out what he was, confronted Forge about why he hadn't told him.
"When you reactivated, we had no way of knowing if you would return to your original Makino programming. Telling you was a risk I wasn't willing to take." Forge answered.
"Well, you've told me, are you worried?" Steel demanded.
"Should I be?"
"You've lost my trust, Forge Farris." Steel said heading for the debriefing room.
Max felt like she was being pulled in two directions. She wanted to trust her uncle, but she didn't want Steel to think she was choosing her uncle over him.
'Talk about a rock in a hard place.' She thought as she caught up with him in the debriefing room.
As they learned more about the Makino battleship, their attention was drawn to their surveillance of the invasion and saw that they were deploying the ground troops. Max watched in awe as the ultralinks bonded with hosts such as weapons, bones, machines, anything they could get themselves around.
"Whoa, they're just like us, Steel." Max breathed.
"They're nothing like us, Max." Steel replied.
Max had to admit that he was right. If Steel was anything like those other ultralinks, he would have absorbed her a long time ago just like they were, instead, she and him shared a symbiotic link that allowed him to act as a conduit that put the TURBO energy she generated to use. And he was trusted by her father to protect her from the ultralinks. Steel may have come from them, but he was not one of them. Everyone soon rushed back to take on the invading forces of the Makino. Max could sense that Steel was still pretty upset, but she didn't want to push it. Not when they seriously needed to keep their head on the fight going on in front of them. As they did their best to offer support from the ground, Forge called them and ordered them to meet him in the drop zone.
Knowing her uncle, it meant he was about to do something crazy. Confirming her suspicions, she and Steel were able to catch her uncle as he was free falling from his destroyed jet. He then told them they needed to get through the force-field surrounding the battleship. And they were going to need Steel to do it. With Steel liked into Max, they were able to pass through the defense shield with relative ease. Once they were inside the ship, Max and Steel still had questions they needed to know.
"Let's walk and talk." Forge said leading them on. "Makino is an conquering class of aliens that are designed to absorb and destroy other planets. Your father and Steel put a stop to their plans to do the same to Earth."
"But I thought Steel was evil?" Max asked not meaning for it to sound the way it did.
"Let's just say your father changed his mind."
"But how? My dad was a scientist." Max asked still confused.
"No." Forge answered "Your father was the other Max Steel."
Max and Steel again were shocked to learn all this. "But why didn't you tell us all this before?" Max asked feeling her head spinning.
"I promised your father I would look after you. You bonding with Steel was never part of that plan." Forge answered. "When Steel reactivated, we had no way of knowing if he would revert back to his original programing or what you two would be capable of. We still don't know."
Max and Steel looked at each other, and she could sense he felt the same confusion and overwhelming shock of knowing that not only did Steel know and work with her father, but the two of them together had been the original Max Steel. But she knew that they couldn't let it get to them, not yet. They still needed to take the ship and right now, they needed to destroy the ship's shield generators to do it. When they reached the generator, they were blind-sided by Dread.
Max and Steel fought back as hard as they could with Forge helping, but Dread was getting stronger each time he got close to Max and Steel. At one point, when he cornered them, he tore Steel from Max's chest plate and tried to talk him into joining up with the Makino again.
"Steel, don't listen to him." Forge yelled for him as he pulled Dread away.
Max and Steel linked up again and tried to get Dread away from Forge, but Dread was just too strong.
"Max, I have a plan. You're just gonna have to trust me." He told her through their link. "I'm taking control of the body." Steel explained.
"I do trust you, I just hope you know what you're doing." Max answered surrendering control to Steel.
"I am N-BERO AXSTEEL X377. I am an Omega class Bio-parasitic warrior." Steel said as he started walking them closer to Dread. "I have heard your words, Miles Dread, and have chosen to be on the right side of history, with you. I embrace my heritage, Lord Makino, and am now yours to command Miles Dread."
As scared as she was with what Steel was doing, she had to trust him. She stayed quiet and let Steel do what he thought was best.
"No!" Forge yelled grabbing hold of their arm. "I was afraid of this, Max! Steel has turned on us."
Max could feel the same stab of pain that Steel undoubtly felt now. Forge didn't trust Steel enough to know him better than that. It hurt her to throw him off them, but in this instant, it worked in their favor to convince Dread that Steel was on his side. But before Dread could make his next move, Steel switched to cannon mode and knocked Dread into the shield generator.
"Dread's evil TURBO energy has a negative charge, the reverse polarity should cause the entire system to overload." Steel said as they made their way to the escape hatch.
"Hey, Steel, I'm sorry I doubted you." Forge tried to apologize.
But Steel didn't seem to believe him, and if Max was being honest, she wasn't sure if she would believe him either. But her doubt was dashed when they were attacked from behind by a giant bug and Forge pushed Steel and her out of the way, down the escape hatch and out the ship. Max and Steel switched to flight mode and they met up with her mother and the other N-Tech agents. As happy as she was to see her mother was okay, she still felt like her heart was ripped out, her uncle was gone. And Max couldn't get her voice to work to say where Forge was.
"He sacrificed himself, for me, after I told him he didn't care." Steel answered with guilt in his voice.
Max felt guilty too, for believing that Forge couldn't care for Steel being what he was, or for doubting what she meant to him. Max felt her tears stinging her eyes as they slid down her face.
"I'm not cleaning that up." She heard from behind them.
Her heart leapt with joy hearing her Uncle Farris. Steel was the first to reach him and hugged him.
"You made it, and there's not a scratch on you." Max said touching her uncle's shoulder, only to have him when she touched him.
"That's no entirely true." He answered showing everyone that he was missing his left arm.
Thankfully, Berto was able to build him a new arm that connected to his brain and would work as good as his real arm. Of course, it would take time for it to learn to communicate with his brain first. Of course, Max still had one question she wanted to know.
"Mom," she said turning to her mother. "How did my father meet Steel?" she asked. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her uncle shake his head, telling her no. "What, are we still keeping secrets, even after the Makino have been taken down?"
"Taken down?" Kat asked in shock.
"Yeah, we destroyed the mother ship, so," Max answered.
"Max, that wasn't the mother ship." Jefferson said darkly. "It was an advance ship."
"To lay the ground work for when the mother ship does arrive." Kat finished.
And things only got more overwhelming when Berto stepped in with his two cents. "This new power source Kat picked up is no joke, I can't quite tell what it is, but it rivals Max's TURBO energy."
Max felt her legs go weak. "I need to sit down." She sighed slumping by her uncle's bed.
"Me too, and I don't even have legs." Steel said laying down next to her.
Max felt her head pounding and spinning hearing that the real fight was only just beginning. She wasn't sure how much more she had in her, but she was sure of one thing, that she was grateful that she didn't have to fight it alone. She was grateful for Steel, for her mother, her uncle and all of N-Tech, for them all to be there for them to face the threat together.
