A/N: Sorry this is late, but between the holiday (Mother's Day for those of you reading this outside the US), homework, friends and helping out around the house, I've been extremely busy. Truthfully, I'm just glad I could find time for this at all. Well hope you enjoy this next chapter and just know that I'm not really that good at fight scenes which will be coming up soon (hopefully) so any help/advice would be greatly appreciated so I can improve. Now back to your regularly scheduled chapter.


"MAX?!" both Kirby and Sydney gasped upon seeing the true face behind the mask. Never had they thought that their best friend could be a top secret agent. Sure they had seen him fight from time to time thus making them suspicious, but more often than not he seemed to run from fights; although now it made sense. Whenever he ran off with some unbelievable or overused excuse, it must have been to change into Max Steel and save the day as they had seen him do countless times. The only problem was that a couple years ago when he first showed up, he had been all but revealed to approximately forty kids on a school field trip. Question now was how was he able to be in two places at once and thus preserve his identity for this long?

On that same note, what the heck was this place? It looked like something out of a movie with one central work station following the perimeter of the room, a gigantic screen in the middle with some sort of machine connected to it, a wheel away work table, tool chest with TV screen, light screen (likely used for x-rays and such), and many more gadgets and machines that Kirby and Sydney could not even begin to guess the function of. The only way they were going to find out anything was by asking the young agent in front of them that was if they could get their brains and mouths to work, as currently they were still trying to take in the information they had just learned. Truthfully it was not easy to take in the fact that your best friend of two years that you shared practically everything with was in all honesty a real life superhero/secret agent. Things like this don't happen to people like them except in books, movies, TV shows and fanfictions and there was simply no way their life was any of those.

While the two civilians were struggling to find the words to talk, Max could do nothing more than stare between them, attempting to get used to the reality of having them finally know the truth. For the next several seconds silence rang out as everyone simply stared at each other, attempting to come to terms with what had just happened. For their part, the two were taking the news better than Max had hoped. They were not freaking out and/or blowing up at him for keeping the secret for one. Then again, that could be because they were currently too shocked to do much. Brushing off the thought, Max took a breath and began again, "Look you guys, I understand that this is a lot to take in at once and I'm sorry I hid this from you for so long, but I didn't have much choice in the matter. This power," he emphasized, raising his hands and allowing them to glow briefly with a small amount of pure TURBO energy before causing it to dissipate, "was practically forced upon me on my sixteenth birthday of all days.

"Furthermore, upon finding out about this place and coming to work for them, I was quickly ordered by my boss not to tell anyone outside of my team here at N-Tek the truth." Already sensing the questions, Max continued, "To answer the questions that I know are burning in your head, I'll say this: first off, I am not sure if I am currently allowed to reveal my boss's name so I am not going to do so right now and secondly N-Tek is a secret organization tasked with finding solutions to the big problems such as global warming, alternative fuels, etc… or at least that's what I was told when I first joined. Now, any other quick questions before we go over to Berto and check out his plan?"

Still finding it difficult to form words, Sydney and Kirby simply looked at each other in pure shock and awe for a few seconds more until the young woman rediscovered her voice. Just as she was about to speak, Steel separated from Max, crossed his "arms" over each other and sarcastically asked, "Hey, am I expected to introduce myself here?" Now completely at a loss of what to say, neither civilian could do anything more complicated than blink and glance between the floating machine, each other and back again, as all of what they were seeing was simply too weird to be real. Like before, this sort of thing only happened in the four places mentioned above aka fantasy worlds.

Hoping to break the stunned silence they had once again fallen into, Max awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck and jokingly stated, "Well, glad to see you guys are taking this better than I expected, as neither of you has yet to pass….." he trailed off, watching Kirby's head lull forward as he passed from consciousness to unconsciousness. "Out. Well, guess I spoke too soon," he added, running a tired hand down his face. Truth be told, this day had taken more out of him than a lot of his past missions combined, and it wasn't even close to being over yet. Walking forward and kneeling down, Max placed two fingers against Kirby's neck to ensure he was only knocked out and could not help but sigh in relief when he felt a strong steady pulse under his fingers. Satisfied for the moment that he was going to be fine, Max let himself fall backwards on his hands sitting on the cool tile floor, taking a moment to go over what had happened and come to terms with it, knowing his friend should come to within the next few minutes.

Somewhat alone for the moment, Sydney located her lost voice and gathered all her courage before looking at Max and slowly exclaiming, "Well, this certainly explains a lot, such as why you were always disappearing on us and why you were never around when Steel was and vice versa. I just have one question though," she paused making sure she had his attention before continuing, "Remember that time about two years ago when Max Steel…err, uh you I guess, had first started showing up?" At Max's weak nod yes, she went on, "I am now curious as to how you managed to be in two places at once. Was it one of your powers, a projection, a robot, what?"

Not too surprised by her question, Max wearily answered, "You were sort of right with your last two guesses. It was what we call a holobot, which is basically a robot base imprinted with as much of a person's identity and personality as can fit on the memory card which as you saw, demonstrated the fact that the more realistic the better the effect." Softly laughing he added, "Definitely comes in handy for situations like those, of which we luckily have had very few as they take a nice amount of energy to fuel." Once again stunned, Sydney simply sat back attempting to absorb the new information. Unsure of whether or not she could hear him, Max slowly stood up and said, "I'll be right back, I'm just going to check with Berto on how the battle plan is coming along. If Kirby wakes up before I get back, please tell him what I told you." Turning around, Max began to jog over to the young scientist when he remembered something important. Turning his head over his shoulder, he hastily added, "Oh, also tell him that if you guys do decide to help us out, both of you will need to go through the quickest crash course in physical, mental and weapons training as possible. In the event that either or both of you choose not to, that is perfectly fine as well. It will only mean that one or both of you will remain here where it is safest. No one here wants to force anyone to do anything they do not feel comfortable doing…well aside from me of course. Then again I am a unique case so…" Shrugging his shoulders in a sort of 'what can you do' sort of way, he turned his head back around and proceeded over to Berto once again, Steel following behind.


A/N: So sorry this took so long to post, but with the end of the school year and finals practically here, I'm just glad I even found time to write this at all. I hope this came out to your liking and it lived up to my usual standards. Also I would like to take the time to thank my reviewers: Brackenfern, doglover1290, Thelegofan and 4753andrew for doing so. Every review means so much to me. So once again, sorry this is so late and thank you for taking the time to read.

Fictionwriter28

P.S.: Constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.