Disclaimer: Max Steel, and associated characters, do not belong to me in any way, shape or form. There's a list of companies that this awesome show does belong to, but at this point I think they've changed hands so much, I'm not sure who it is. Anyway, I'm not on the list. Sad. Xam, however, is my own creation, and I would appreciate requests for permission to use his character before said use. No idea why you'd want him, because he's kind of a quirk, but still.
Author's Note: *pokes head up from the Abyss of Inactivity* I LIVEEEEEEEEE! Um... hi! Remember me? Det? Heh heh... have I mentioned that life likes to grab me by the throat and shake? ^_^ Work work work... and school... and then that recreational outdoor stuff. It all adds up to the Writer's Block of Doom, apparently. In the really, really annoying, "three-quarters spits out in like five minutes, and the last quarter is like pulling teeth made out of Jell-o" sort of way. Bah. Well, I think this part involves entirely too much moral debate, but at least I turned up with something, right? Right? ^_^
Team Steel Maximum: Recharged
Decisions
By:
Detonator Stera
For a few surreal seconds after the clone hit the ground, Max lay where he was, stunned. There was a buzz in his head, slowly growing louder in volume; after a moment, he realized it was Berto's frantic attempts to raise him. Then everything snapped into clear focus, and he was rolling up onto one knee, leaning over to check on the downed man. Sweating, labored breathing, shivering... the super agent was quite familiar with those symptoms. He looked, but found no bio-link, or anything to give him some kind of readout to confirm.
"Berto?" he called in the near darkness. There was a brief sound of relief over the bio-link.
"I'm here. Is that one of the clones? One survived?" the Hispanic agent replied incredulously.
"Looks like it. We found Smiley chasing him. I think it's the one I'd seen in that discard tube," Max confirmed, rising.
"It's the only way he could've survived," Berto concluded.
"Yeah. Kat and I were just really lucky," Max agreed, looking toward the entrance of the cave-in. He could hear Kat calling for him. He glanced back down at a quiet groan from the clone. The mismatched eyes were half open, staring unseeing at the cave ceiling.
"I've got Hawk on the way already," Berto told him before he could comment. Max nodded, didn't voice the concern that it was possibly already too late. Berto knew just as well as he did, probably better. Max instead focused on getting them out of the most immediate predicament.
"Going... turbo!" he announced, tapping the button on the bio-link. Green energy burst through his system, and a few hard punches shattered the chunks of cliff trapping them. Max powered down, then returned to the clone, hauling him over his shoulders in a fireman's carry. He slipped out through the opening he'd made, crossing his fingers that he didn't find Psycho right then.
"Max!" Kat called, jogging up next to him.
"Psycho?" he questioned simply. She shook her head.
"Took off after the rock slide. Who's-" she started, then circled Max a little to see who he was carrying. "Whoa! You took down the creepy look-alike?" she exclaimed. Max shook his head a little.
"He did most of the work," he replied, easing the unconscious form off his shoulder and onto the ground. Kat frowned, folding her arms. Tried to ignore the surreal aspect of seeing her partner simultaneously hale and hearty, and leaning against death's door.
"Transphasic crash?" she guessed.
"Even better job of it then I usually manage," Max agreed, then glanced up at the screech of air as Hawk flew over, and descended a few feet away. Kat's scowl deepened as Max hefted the unconscious man, and placed him in the small jet's passenger seat.
"You're taking him back to N-Tek?" she questioned. Hawks were only two-seaters, and she didn't like the idea of her partner being attacked at high-altitudes, from behind, with no back-up. Max had proven time and again his excellent possum abilities. Who said the clone wouldn't be adept as well?
"What else are we gonna do with him? Can't just let him die," Max replied, vaulting into the front seat. Kat's expression suggested otherwise, but she knew better than to argue with the look in her partner's eyes. Damn hero genes.
"Just hope you know what you're doing, Steel," she muttered, watching the jet take off.
On the flight back, Max and Berto decided that just running in with the half-well, mostly- dead clone and tossing him in the transphasic generator might not be the wisest course of action. Having Jefferson's consent on the matter would make things go much smoother. Unfortunately for Berto, it was also decided that, to expedite things, the techie should go plead their case while Max was still en route.
Berto thought that Smith listened with remarkable calm to his report of the current circumstances, considering he'd just told his boss that his partner, the boss' son, was currently several thousand feet in the air, alone, with a supposedly unconscious being that, as far as they knew, was a savagely vicious killing machine. Smith was quiet a moment when the young agent finished.
"Let me get this straight. Max and Kat discovered Psycho chasing a Max clone in the forest. Max ended up getting caught in a rock slide with said clone. Now the clone has collapsed, and Max is bringing him here, because the two of you want to recharge him," Smith rubbed the bridge of his nose as he spoke. Berto nodded, pressed his point.
"We want to save his life. Max had a good point. According to his and Kat's reports, none of the other clones would have run from Psycho. They'd have fought. This one stayed on the defensive the whole time. Max is convinced he's the one he'd seen in the disposal tube in the lab, and thinks he deserves a chance. And I'd like to study a live clone, if it turns out to be possible. It might explain a few things we haven't figured out yet," Berto replied, nudging at his glasses. Smith was quiet a long, contemplative, moment, then sighed heavily.
"How have the poly-graphene stress tests been working for Max?" he asked finally, referring to N-Tek's attempts to create a Max, and therefore Psycho-proof, material to contain the cyborg, should they ever manage to capture him. Berto grinned a little.
"He never managed to break the last one," he reported.
"Line one of the exam rooms with it. We'll keep the clone there until we figure out what to do with him," Jefferson decided. Berto nodded, relayed the decision to Max, then hurried to acquire a gurney and meet Max in the hangar.
When Max taxied into the hangar, he was greeted by not only Berto, but his father and several armed agents. He said nothing; despite his conviction of the clone's sanity, the back-up was reassuring. He popped the top of Hawk, vaulted out, and carefully lifted his unconscious burden out of the jet. He deposited the clone on the stretcher, watched as Berto took off. The guards went after the young scientist, keeping their weapons trained on the gurney's occupant. Max paused to meet his father's gaze.
"Thanks, Dad," he offered sincerely. Jefferson laid a hand on his son's shoulder.
"Let's hope we're not wrong about this," he replied. Max nodded, then the two of them headed for the generator room.
Berto had just activated the generator when they arrived.
"Think we were in time?" Max asked quietly, watching the glowing rings spin. From the other side of the glass, for a change. Berto touched his glasses contemplatively.
"It's been at least three days since he had a charge, probably longer. He had to have been injured in the explosion, survival or not. And who knows how much of that time was spent running from Psycho. If he makes it, I'll be impressed," the techie replied. Max looked grim, watching the transphasic energy beam into the clone. Smith's gaze tracked from his son to the look-alike, and he tried not to shudder.
The recharging process was successful, as far as bringing the probes back up to full power. The clone remained unconscious, as Max tended to do after a hardcore transphasic crash. They moved him to an exam room, heavily guarded, while a room was reinforced with sheets of poly-graphene. During the process, Berto had the presence of mind to send Hawk back to pick up Kat. The reinforcement was not a quick task; Kat arrived just after they had finished moving the clone into the room. Jefferson had left to attend other duties, with the instruction that he be informed when there was any change in the clone's status.
"He's really still alive ?" Kat asked, standing with Max in an observation room separated from the exam room the clone rested in by a foot of concrete that bore a thick glass window. The clone lay on the bed; a series of wires ran from his body to a collection of monitors stationed around. Berto had hauled his laptop and other various pieces of equipment into the observation room, and had made a small nest. He looked up from studying one of the screens.
"For now. These read-outs are looking good, but we'll have to see how he is when he wakes up," the youngest agent replied, tapping a few keys on the laptop.
An hour passed by. Then two. The third was almost up, when Kat suggested heading to the cafeteria and foraging. Berto was content fussing with monitors and checking read-outs, and Max didn't want to leave until the clone was conscious. Kat ended up heading down on her own, and, in a show of team solidarity, bringing back enough for all three of them, and then some.
"What's taking so long? He's charged up. Max would be up and running by now," Kat commented, taking a bite of her sandwich. Berto crunched some chips.
"Max is Max," he replied, then glanced up at the super agent leaning against the glass, chewing thoughtfully. A chirp from one of the machines had them all looking at the clone, who was turning his head with a low groan.
Berto picked himself up off the floor, and all three of them watched as the clone blinked awake and aware. He held perfectly still, slowly tracking the room with his eyes, obviously trying to get a bearing on his surroundings. Resignation flickered in his eyes when he saw the monitors, and he closed his eyes again. They waited a few minutes, but the clone didn't appear to be planning to do anything else.
"Well, that was anti-climactic," Kat noted after a moment, folding her arms across her chest.
"He didn't jump up and start breaking things," Max observed.
"I'm going to go in and talk to him. See if I can get some answers," Berto decided, easing his ever-present laptop out of the mess of equipment he'd hauled into the room.
"I'll go with you," Max and Kat replied simultaneously. Berto nodded and grinned a little, expecting the response, but appreciating it deeply nonetheless. As they started to head out, Max paused to grab a remaining sandwich from the reserves Kat had brought up from the cafeteria.
The dual-colored eyes opened as the trio filed in, the clone sitting up as soon as he saw Max. He locked eyes with him cautiously for a moment, then nodded to himself.
"So I'm not back at square one. That's a relief," he commented with a small grin. He eyed Kat and Berto a little more cautiously, but said nothing. Berto stepped closer, offered the clone a neutral smile.
"I'm Berto. This is Kat, and you've already met Max," he offered, gesturing to his partners as he spoke. The replica looked at each of them in turn, let his gaze stay on Max. Despite the vague unease that settled in his gut from that steady, almost familiar gaze, the super agent offered a smile, and stepped forward, holding out the sandwich.
"Thought you might be hungry," he explained. The clone eyed it with a blink of confusion, but accepted, turning it over in his hands.
"Ham on rye. Caf special," Kat added. The clone quirked an eyebrow, but unwrapped the sandwich, took a cautious sniff, then a large bite. He muffled something the team took to mean "thanks." Understanding Max's voracious appetite due to probe demand, they waited for him to finish a few bites before pressing on with the interrogation.
"What's your name?" Berto questioned finally, drawing the clone's attention back to him.
"Number 77," was the prompt answer. None of the agents were surprised by the answer, but there was a mutual flash of creeped out pity amongst them.
"How are you feeling?" Berto continued, keeping his voice carefully bland. 77 took a moment to take stock of himself, and another chomp of food while he was at it.
"Pretty good. I'd been feeling drained for a while," he affirmed with a grin. Berto moved closer, paused at the foot of the bed. Max and Kat took up positions close by, appearing relaxed, to the untrained eye.
"I'd like to ask you some questions about the lab you were in," Berto requested. 77 sighed a little, but nodded his consent.
"Fire away," he added.
"How many... clones were there?" the Hispanic scientist questioned. The clone frowned, looking thoughtful, using the pause to finish off the sandwich.
"Umm... they started with 80, but by the time you guys showed up... maybe 40?" he replied finally. Max and Kat winced. They could easily guess what had happened to the fallen clones.
"How old are you?" Berto continued. 77 gave him a blank look. "Okay, how long were you in the lab? Years? Months? Days?" the scientist clarified.
"I have no idea," 77 replied after a moment. "I mean, I know what a day, month, year is, but it's hard to keep track of time in a place like that, you know?" he added. All three N-Tek agents nodded. Berto went on, asking questions about some of the experiments the clones had been subjected to. 77 answered, but kept his responses carefully bland; in much the same way, Kat and Max realized later, that they had delivered their reports on the infiltration of the Dread base where 77 had been found. With a tight leash on any emotional reaction to keep the horror from seeming too real.
Kat let Berto grill the clone about experiments and procedures for the better part of an hour, before she interrupted with one of the questions that was on everyone's mind.
"So, why aren't you nuts like the rest of them?" she asked bluntly. Max shot her a look. 77 blinked, then shrugged with a grin.
"Dunno. Luck of the draw?" he offered. Berto picked up the proverbial ball.
"Were there any others like you?" he questioned. The clone was quiet a moment.
"I was top of the pack in strength, speed, response, whatever," he replied.
"Okay. Were there any others who were sane like you?" Berto tried rephrasing the question. Again, the replica took a moment to think.
"There were a few, near the beginning, who weren't aggressive wacky nuts. They were... eliminated by the really crazy ones during tests. And there were some who were taken down because they were too insane to take orders at all. The ones who were left when you guys took down the lab were the ones who had learned to take orders, but I don't think any of them were actually sane," he finished. The N-Tek agents were quiet a moment.
"Why were you in that discard tube?" Max blurted finally, unable to contain the question any longer. 77's eyes went blank with hard memories.
"Because I refused to follow orders and terminate a target, then attempted to assist said target to escape," he replied flatly. His hands curled into tight fists in his lap. Kat blinked.
"You tried to help another clone escape?" she questioned. 77 shook his head sharply.
"Someone they'd found outside. A... civilian," he replied, looking down. All three agents stiffened. The information shouldn't have been a surprise, this was DREAD they were talking about, but it still appalled. The clone took a deep breath before continuing.
"I tried blasting one of the doors, give the guy a chance to run. Thought I could distract everyone else long enough to give him a chance," he continued, looking at Max. The super agent stared at him, at a loss for words. "78 cut him down before he could figure out what I was doing. Then the guards took me down," the clone finished flatly. There was silence as the N-Tek agents processed the information. They all started to ask questions at the same time, overlapped, stopped, and looked at one another, establishing pecking order.
"Why didn't they kill you outright?" Max wanted to know. 77 looked pained.
"Any time one of the clones rebelled enough to be... eliminated, they'd be locked in a term box- that tube I was in- and kept until the Executioner came by again. He'd deal with them," he explained. There was another uncomfortable silence amid the agents.
"Who's 78?" Berto prompted finally. The odd-eyed clone sighed.
"My... rival, I guess. He was second to me in strength and all that. Probably the most sane, next to me, too. But he was bad sane. He liked killing. If a clone went too nuts to be caged up again, he was usually the one to, um, terminate them," he finished. There was another uncomfortable moment, before Kat asked the next question.
"Okay, not-so-wild shot-in-the-dark here... this Executioner. Big, blond guy? Metal face and arm?" she guessed. The surprised look the clone gave her said it all.
"How did you know?" he questioned. Kat made a face.
"Long history," Max muttered, folding his arms and meeting Kat's gaze. Of course it made sense. Smiley's version of Disneyland Gone Wrong. They shuddered in unison. Before he could elaborate further, there was a quiet pop of an intercom activating.
"I need Team Steel in my office, now," Jefferson's voice, tightly controlled, came through the speaker. Max flinched guiltily, Kat rolled her shoulders, and Berto sighed, then scooped up his laptop.
"Busted?" 77 asked with a weak grin. Kat waved a hand flippantly.
"We're used to it," she added with a grin.
"We'll be back later. With more food," Max promised, and the three agents slipped out of the room.
Berto took a moment to stash his laptop back in the observation room, and the small group headed off. The quiet contemplation between them lasted all of ten steps.
"Well, what do you think? Crazy-faking-sane, or real deal?" Kat questioned as they headed down the hall, and out of the maze of N-Tek's medical research division.
"He's pretty convincing if he is playing us," Berto replied. Max remained uneasily quiet. It was a little like listening to your friends talk about you behind your back, but to your face.
"How can he still be sane after being in that place?" Kat went on.
"Maybe he got Max's strength of will," Berto suggested. Kat hummed thoughtfully.
"If he did make it through... that, and isn't totally warped, he deserves a chance," Max put it finally. Kat and Berto paused to look at him, then nodded.
"See what the Boss says about it, right?" Kat added. They came out of the medi-maze, and approached the elevator leading to Jefferson's office.
Smith looked up as the trio filed in, his gaze unreadable. Which Max knew from childhood to mean he was in Big Trouble. The boss sighed a little, then got to his feet.
"I assume one of you has a logical reason for putting yourselves in a potentially dangerous situation with an unknown subject," he clipped out, gaze level on his son. Max, to his credit, met his father's gaze evenly.
"I made the decision first. The subject wasn't behaving aggressively," Berto put in. Smith chuckled a little under his breath.
"You've been spending entirely too much time with Max," he muttered, then eyed all of them. "So, because this clone wasn't pounding on the walls and gnawing on the monitor cables, at the moment, you all decided to go in. Not only putting yourselves, some of my best agents, at risk, but also giving him two opportunities to over-power one or more of you and escape," Jefferson finished. Max looked a little shame-faced, but Kat cocked her head.
"So we were supposed to just let Berto go in by himself and see if the clone used his blood to paint the walls?" she asked pleasantly. Berto swallowed hard, and Max shot her a dark look. Jefferson opened his mouth, then sighed, turning to face the wall.
"How could I have forgotten that this is Team Steel I'm talking to?" he asked rhetorically, then turned back to the trio. "Well, since your little gamble worked, did you get any useful information out of the clone?" he questioned, re-taking his chair. Berto nodded.
"I'll compile the responses and submit my report as soon as I can," he offered. Smith nodded, giving Max a steady look.
"He's also a potential danger here. I think the best option will be to take him to Baker's Island. It keeps him isolated, which may be safest for him, and everyone here, until we can determine his motives. We'll talk more about what to do with him once I've read Berto's report and we've had an opportunity to observe him for a time," he decided. Max folded his arms across his chest, but nodded. Jefferson returned to his desk. "I'll get the transfer order ready. Team Steel will escort... the clone, and get him settled," he concluded. Taking that as their cue, the trio of agents started to leave. Max hung back, waiting until Berto and Kat had left.
"I read your debriefing from the mission. How are you handling this, son?" Jefferson questioned once they were alone. Max sighed explosively, and paced from one end of the room to the other.
"Okay, I guess. Nightmares, that's nothing new... I did go talk to Dr. Shasos," he added before Jefferson could comment, referring to N-Tek's head psychologist. He was quiet a long moment. "...it's bothering me, a lot. Not just the idea of what they were doing in there, making psychotic super-soldiers, but that they looked like me," Max sighed, dropping into a chair in front of the desk. "I'm dealing," he added quickly. "It helps, knowing the lab's destroyed," he finished. Jefferson didn't voice his concern that if one clone had survived, it was possible another had as well. Max had surely already come to the same conclusion.
"What are your thoughts on the clone?" Jefferson asked instead. Max paused a moment, frowning at the ground, studying his clasped hands.
"77, um, the clone... he just seems too... well, together to have been in that lab. I mean, I'm sure he's the one I saw in that tube, but well..." he paused, sighed. "He talked about being the only really sane one left, and that he'd tried to help a civilian escape." Another long pause. "I... I want to believe that it's possible he's telling the truth," Max admitted quietly. Jefferson rose, and came around the desk, taking the chair beside Max and placing a hand on his son's shoulder.
"But what if this is a ploy?" he asked quietly. The super agent ran both hands through his hair in a nervous gesture.
"How are we gonna tell? If he's smart enough to play harmless..." Max continued, then dropped his hands in a frustrated gesture. "Dread knows we wouldn't just kill him outright," he pointed out. Jefferson was quiet a moment.
"Time will tell. All we can do for now is keep an eye on him and not let our guard down. Even if he is what he claims, Dread won't be happy if he finds out he's alive," he observed. Max nodded, and pushed up from his seat.
"You got it, Dad," he agreed, turning for the exit. Jefferson watched him go, then stared at his computer, not really seeing the screen, for a long contemplative moment.
Kat and Berto were waiting for him when he came out of Jefferson's office.
"So while we're waiting on the order to move the clone, I'm going to go check the security measures on Behemoth. Jefferson's going to want extra precautions in place, I'm sure," Berto announced.
"Yeah, we should feed the poor guy again, too," Kat put in. "If he's anything like you post-recharge, he's probably already eaten his pillow, and maybe half the mattress," she added with a grin, lightly backhanding Max in the gut. Max batted at her hand with a mock scowl, but nodded. The three of them started back out into the main halls.
"I don't want to call him 77," Max declared suddenly. Kat and Berto stopped to look at him. "It's creeping me out. He needs an actual name," he concluded. Kat looked thoughtful, tapping a finger on her bottom lip.
"Yeah, but what? Bizarro?" she offered with a grin. Max narrowed his eyes at her. Berto covered up his snicker with a cough.
"No good. No fire breath or ability to fly," he added helpfully. Max rolled his eyes.
"You're both funny. We'll see if he's got any good ideas," he decided. They reached a split in the halls, and Berto turned off to head for the hangar, while Max and Kat headed for the cafeteria to re-stock.
77 was relieved to see them again, and thrilled by the appearance of more food. Kat's assumption on his appetite rivaling Max's was on the mark, and he inhaled another sandwich before they had even given him the news about the plans for his relocation. The news was met with a decided about of glee.
"So I'm not getting left in this room? Awesome!" 77 enthused after he'd swallowed. A pause, during which another half of a sandwich disappeared. "Am I getting stuck in another room instead?" he asked warily. Max and Kat looked at each other, then shrugged.
"It'll be up to Smith, but with any luck, you'll have some roaming space," Max answered finally. 77 shrugged.
"Better than being stuck in a tube, at least," he decided, polishing off the food in his hand. Max shuddered inwardly.
"So... you need a name," he announced abruptly. 77 quirked an eyebrow at him. "Well, it seems wrong to call you by a number, like an experiment or something," Max added lamely.
"And it's so creepy sci-fi movie," Kat added cheerfully, earning another glare from her partner. 77 shrugged.
"Okay. I've never thought about something like that. Any suggestions?" he asked. Kat opened her mouth. Max elbowed her in the ribs.
"Hey! Jerk," she protested. Max looked at 77.
"Whatever she suggests, say no," he told his clone. Kat huffed, then elbowed Max in revenge.
"Just because you're lame and don't like Superman..." she muttered.
"Because everyone knows Batman is cooler," Max countered, then turned back to 77, who was giving them both a blank look. "We'll teach you pop culture later," he promised. 77's expression didn't change, but he nodded agreeably once more. There was more discussion, including suggestions from Star Trek and Star Wars. Midway through the debate, Berto arrived, and threw in a few suggestions from Hispanic cartoons he'd watched as a toddler, all of which Max vehemently shot down. 77 listened to the entire conversation with an expression of curious interest. Kat finally sighed and shot Max a withering glare.
"Okay, High Emperor Killjoy, how about Xam?" she offered, folding her arms. Max quirked an eyebrow.
"Sam? What, are we going patriotic or something?" he asked. Kat rolled her eyes.
"No, dork. Xam. Max spelled backwards. He must be a backwards opposite of you, since he hasn't spent the last two hours annoying me by having no sense of humor," she explained drolly. Max huffed in offense, but the clone piped up before he could speak.
"I kinda like it," he commented. All three N-Tek agents looked at him.
"Well, it should be your decision," Berto noted. Max nodded agreement, as did Kat after a moment of consideration.
"Xam it is, then," the clone affirmed with a grin. He cocked his head thoughtfully. "Can I still change it after I see some of this stuff you guys were talking about?" he added with a playful smirk. Kat snickered, and Max sighed. The crackle pop of the speaker system drew the small group's attention.
"We're ready to transport the clone," Jefferson announced simply. The light-hearted air in the room generated by the playful banter fizzled, as all three N-Tek agents were reminded that they were supposed to be treating Xam as a potentially deadly threat. Kat coughed uncomfortably, then squared her shoulders and looked at Xam.
"Well, good news is you're getting out of here..." she began. Xam shifted off the edge of the bed, and stretched.
"But I can't be running loose, right?" he finished, then shrugged. "S'okay. It's all part of the drill," he added agreeably, holding out his hands, wrists together. Kat flashed Max a look, then stepped forward and snapped the energy cuffs in her back pocket onto the clone. They took up positions on either side of him, with Berto bringing up the rear, and Max keyed open the door. A group of armed agents were waiting for them. Max winced inwardly, his internal debate regarding his clone raging, but Xam seemed unbothered by the procedure, offering no hint of misbehavior as the group made their way to the hangar.
The other agents stayed with them until Xam had been safely interred in a holding cell on board Behemoth. Kat and Max took positions in the cockpit, while Berto holed up in the lab to fiddle with the equipment he'd dragged onto the carrier ship. The first half hour or so of the flight was quiet; Kat and Max exchanged little more than flight jargon, each wrapped up in their own thoughts otherwise.
"He comes across as really sincere," Kat finally commented out loud. Max looked over at her.
"Xam? Yeah. It's still too early to draw any conclusions, but..." he agreed.
"He's almost too sincere. Like, I dunno, one of Berto's little robot dogs right before its head explodes and sprays you with shrapnel," Kat continued, the corner of her mouth quirking. Max's right eye twitched, and he shot Kat a dirty look.
"Thanks," he gritted narrowly. Kat chuckled. Max fumed a moment longer over the allusion, then sighed. "I don't know if I want to believe him because he looks like me, or because he seems so... not crazy," he admitted finally. Kat nodded.
"Safer to just remember the secret agent handbook. Never assume," she suggested. Max sighed, and watched the dot that was Baker's Island grow as they closed the distance.
To Be Continued...
Author's Note: This chapter, besides taking two frickin' YEARS to finally spit out, seemed like a lot of lame filler and thought stuff. I was hoping to get a little more actual story progression in this bit, but nooooo, everyone wanted to debate about how evil Xam might be. 'Cause we've known him for more than five minutes. Yeesh. Poor little dude. I'm chipping away at the next chapter, cause I know what the next big reveal is, but I'm having all kinds of alternate scenario debate nonsense about Maxy. Because, surprise surprise, she's being a bitch. And thank you to those of you who have offered to be idea bounce boards. I do really appreciate it, I'm just lame and have my hands full with school and work. ^_^ Here's hoping the next part will take less time to generate itself, but sadly, no guarantees. Stupid muses and their stupid fickleness. Catch ya later!
-Det