Dereliction of Duty Chapter 3

A Transformers Prime Max Steel Crossover Fanfiction

Copper Canyon

"Max!" Steel demanded as the apartment door slammed home behind them. "What was that? Who was that?"

The Ultralink detached and swept around the room in dizzying circles. Max smiled at him and flexed his hand. The burns stung a bit and a tingling spread out to the rest of his arm but it was no worse than usual when he lost control of his power. Steel began muttering out something that sounded like motorcycle specs. He paused and brought his phalanges up dramatically to the top of his display before swooning against a vase.

"Who was that mysterious, beautiful bike anyway?" He gasped out.

"Boys!" Molly said in surprise as she came out of the bathroom wrapped in an impossibly fluffy towel, her face done in a soothing mask, an her hair wrapped in a steaming towel. "What are you doing back so soon?"

Max glanced around guiltily at the essentials oils heating over a candle, the softly playing music on the screen, the ice cream softening on the counter; all the markers of a girl's day in. She needed this. He couldn't dump – whatever this new thing was - on her, not right now.

"We ah," Max began frantically searching for an excuse. "Left Kirby at the animal shelter."

"Well," she said arching her eyebrows with a tired smile, "hopefully he finds a forever home soon."

"Ha, yeah we-" Max stuttered on.

"Only ran into Max's dream bike!" Steel burst out.

He darted around the room waving his phalanges widely.

"She was beautiful Molly!" he enthused. "You should have seen her!"

"She?" Molly said, sparing a glance at the befuddled Max with a wink. "Should Sydney be jealous?"

"There's room for two on that saddle!" Steel insisted. "We just came home to get the stuff!"

He darted into their bedroom and Molly yawned and sauntered over to her chair.

"What stuff?" she asked.

"All the," Max glanced quickly to the side, "ah, research I… did?"

She stared at him with a tried smile, clearly knowing there was more going on, but equally clearly deciding it wasn't worth pursuing.

"Here we go!" Steel called out as he darted out of the bedroom clutching a bundle of paper. "Year by year speed, maneuverability, safety stats, and most … importantly paint jobs. See you Molly!"

"Bye Mom!" Max called out.

"Remember our storage issues!" Molly called as she eased her feet into a foot bath. "And the mods you will have to make. Forge doesn't want you expending even more N-Tek recourses on a personal rig after Berto got in trouble over that truck. That boy does not need any more trouble."

"I know Mom," Max assured her. "We just want to look."

He and Steel paused outside of the door and slumped against the wall with a joint sigh.

"That was close," Steel said.

"Quick thinking about the motorcycle stuff," Max said. "I'd nearly forgotten I'd done all that research."

"It isn't just cover," Steel pointed out, as he shuffled the stack. "That bike wasn't normal and these should show us exactly how."

"Hey Steel," Max asked as they headed for the stairs. "Did he seem, familiar, to you?"

"Come to think of it he did," Steel said as he busily shoved the information into Max's backpack. "Maybe he was one of those soldiers who bamboozled us a while back?"

"No," Max began but hesitated. "Maybe? I don't think so. I don't remember seeing him."

"I know what you mean…" Steel said with a frown. "This memory feels somehow, older than that. But he is military. Definitely. I can smell it on him."

"Think Berto will run his information for us without telling Forge?" Max asked.

"I don't see why not," Steel said. "I took a pic of his dogtags so let me make a call. Hey Berto?"

Steel projected a holo-display and the N-Tek agent grinned at them cheerfully through a face full of soot.

"Whoa!" Max exclaimed. "Berto! What-"

"Nothing! Nothing!" Berto assured him with a wave. "Cytro was just a little … finicky today. It's that new energy source."

"Right," Max said shaking his head. "Well we ran into a soldier today and need you to run some info on him."

"Forge told you Max," Berto scolded him even as the tech wiped his face and moved to his consol. "Quit messing with the Army boys."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Max said. "But this is different. It's just one guy and he didn't deliberately contact me. He's got this amazing motorcycle though and I just thought I'd be responsible and make sure he's not a crazy terrorist type before I do anything this time."

"Okay," Berto sighed. "Give me his stats."

"Jack Darby," Steel said. "Serial number-"

"Madre de-" Berto suddenly jerked away from the consol and stared at the screen with frantic panic. "Darby? Army. Darby? Wait a tick! Tallish guy for his age, blue-grey eyes, black hair?" He demanded. "Little older than Max?"

"Well, yeah," Max replied stunned.

"Listen Max, Steel," Berto hissed. "You stay away from him. He is no bueno for us, I mean you. Don't-"

Something belched fire and smoke off screen and Berto glanced to the side.

"Listen. I gotta fix this. We'll talk later, but there is no way on this or any other planet I am introducing you to that bunch! Just, stay away from him!" Berto snapped raising a threatening finger. "No internet searches. No asking around! No bueno!"

The line went dead and Max and Steel stared at each other blankly.

"That was-" Max started squinting at the empty projection.

"Weird." Steel finished, tilting his body and letting the projection drop.

"We gonna stay away from this Darby guy?" Max asked with a sly grin.

"Would Toxon stay away from an all you can eat Exon Mobile Spill?" Steel asked brightly.

"Let's go!" Max said. "But just to be on the safe side. Let's go turbo stealth as soon as we get close."

"I should be able to track the energy signal of that bike easily enough," Steel said as they reached the café. "It is distinctly different from Turbo energy but shares a few, key, elements…"

His voice drifted off into muttering and Max smiled and slipped his ear buds in. He had practiced nonchalant lingering and it was particularly easy around here. No one noticed one more young person idling along the sidewalks by the farmer's market.

"Got it!" Steel exclaimed.

Max stretched and glanced at his watch, then set off at a brisk walk. His head's up display activated, displaying the trail they were following. Max arched an eyebrow and frowned.

"That looks like a turbo energy trail to me," Max observed. "Faint but clearly turbo energy."

"Yeah," Steel said with a hint of frustration in his voice. "You must have soaked him with the stuff when I lost control after touching that bike. The weird thing is that there's so little of it."

"How do you mean?" Max asked.

"According to my records you released a surge of turbo energy powerful enough to crisp half the circuits in the block," Steel said.

Mac winced.

"My bad, not yours. I said I lost control," Steel went on. "But it kind of felt like a circuit formed too. So I think the reason we didn't knock out the power was that Berto's mysterious soldier boy absorbed it."

"Woah, woah, woah! Absorbed it? Is he going to be okay?" Max asked. "Turbo energy isn't good for normal people… Is it?"

"Yet another reason for us to find him," Steel pointed out. "But yeah, I think he'll be fine. There's not much chance this guy is normal by any definition. A normal human would be leaking turbo energy out every which way, but I am actually having to increase my sensor sensitivity to max just to follow his trail. Whoever this Jack Darby is, he has a few tricks up his regulation grey Army sleeves."

"Good thing we have a few tricks of our own." Max said with a grin as they jogged into the old warehouse district.

"You said it," Steel agreed as the trail disappeared through a wooden garage door. "Stealth mode?"

"Stealth mode," Max confirmed.

The heat signature of the strange soldier showed bent over the gleaming blue bike on the heads-up-display.

"Ah, Steel?" Max asked. "Do bikes normally glow like that?"

"I told you that bike wasn't normal!" Steel said. "She must be clocking enough energy to fuel a hundred normal bikes. Oh wow! Can you imagine getting your linking phalanges into that mesh!"

"Woah, not in front of the stray cats Steel," Max said with a laugh. "She is awesome though," he said with a dreamy sigh as they slipped through a window and landed on the oil stained concrete.

"Awesome," Steel agreed. "Man if we could get Berto to fix her up with a turbo charge port I bet we could tear up the roads from here to Ney York!"

"What's in New York?' Max asked with a grin.

"Stuff! Doesn't matter." Steel said. "With a bike like that it's not about the destination!"

"That's true enough," the soldier said in an amused tone. "A week on the highways just cruising is an adventure in itself."

"Yeah!" Steel enthused, "we could-"

"Steel!" Max snapped out stiffening. "Isn't stealth mode supposed to automatically mute our sound?"

"Oh, yeah." Steel muttered. "How did he-?"

The soldier turned away from where he had been bent over the bike's display. His grey eyes sparkled with amusement as he crossed his arms loosely and leaned back against the bike.

Max Steel stood up and let stealth mode dissolve into his base form. They stared at each other for several long moments before Max broke eye contact and rubbed the back of his head uneasily.

"So you're not with Colonel Castle?" He blurted out.

The friendly face, so familiar, hardened suddenly.

"Castle?" he demanded stiffly. "The traitor being held on terrorism and conspiracy charges? What in the name of Lady Liberty would I have to do with him?"

"Ah," Max said uneasily. "I guess nothing?"

"Real smooth partner," Steel said. "Try for some useful information."

"No," the soldier said, and then shook his head with a laugh.

He straightened and came forward with his hand out, smiling.

"Look, we got off on the wrong foot," he said with a grin. "My name is Jackson Darby; currently a cadet at West Point. You?"

"Folks call me Max Steel," Max said. "I'm actually kind of surprised you don't know me…"

"We don't have much time for popculture icons, what with studying and training," the other said with a shrug.

"Popculture?" Steel burst out flying out from Max's chest. "We're superheroes I'll have you know!"

"Steel!" Max called out in frustration. "Our cover?"

Jackson Darby followed Steel with his eyes but seemed markedly unsurprised at the appearance of the ultralink.

"Cover huh?" he asked. "I take it you have a secret identity then?"

"Of course we do!" Steel said as he circled Arcee, trying to scan her. "All superheroes do!"

Every time his blue scanning beam was about to touch her it fizzled and blinked out.

"And I take it you saw my face," Max said uneasily. "So Cadet Darby-"

"Call me Jack," he said with a grin that suddenly faltered into a perplexed frown. "Look, I don't want to sound like a creeper, but I have the weirdest feeling that we've met before. A long time ago…"

"Really?" Max said letting his helmet disassemble. "Me too."

"Mud and blood?" Jack asked his head tilted to the side curiously.

"Ah…What?" Max asked arching an eyebrow.

"Nothing," Jack said, shaking his head with a smile. "Well, I can't remember where we've met before, but maybe you can help me out with something else."

"How so?" Max asked.

"My bike," Jack nodded to the gleaming blue cycle. "We were on a road trip when we stopped back there for breakfast. Since you ah," he waved his hand a Max.

"Sorry about that." Max said with a wince. "It kind of happens. My turbo energy. Thought I had it under control but-"

"You clearly didn't," Steel pointed out as he circled back to the young men. "First of all, I, had it under control. Secondly there is something weird about that bike. She's not electric, or gas, or any other fuel type I've seen. The moment we touched her the energy field she generates shorted out my controls."

"She's one of a kind," Jack said with a smile, "and just bursting with proprietary tech."

"Why is the Army in charge of developing something this awesome?" Max asked.

"Oh we're not," Jack said with a smile. "She's a private creation. I just get a chance to work with her. The boss knows and trusts me but I'm on my own. That's why I need help finding a place to keep her. So what do I call you?"

"Steel, at your service," the ultralink said with a bow.

Jack returned the gesture with a nod and turned back to Max holding out his hand.

"That would make you Max?" he asked. "Max MaGrath?"

"Yeah, I'm – ah!" Max yelped and leapt back as a brilliant spiral of turbo energy leapt off of his hand and coiled around Jack's hand and forearm.

Jack blinked in surprise and then watched the blue light curiously as it curled around his biceps and disappeared into his skin, twisting his arm to watch it flicker and dance.

"Beautiful," he murmured. "Is this normal?"

"No!" Steel interrupted as he darted over to inspect Jack's arm. "It's weird! Turbo energy doesn't react with normal humans like that!" Steel gasped and darted back to hide behind Max's shoulder. "You're not some Army bio-weapon are you?"

Jack snorted and shook out his arm, dislodging the last of the Turbo energy.

"I am biological," he offered, "and I am training my body to be a weapon for the Army. Like every other cadet and recruit. Does that count?"

"Don't sass me Army man!" Steel warned him, shaking a phalange from behind Max. "I-did your bike just move on its own?" Steel demanded whipping around to face Arcee.

Jack glanced back with an amused grin.

"GPS glitches," he said shrugging his shoulders. "Like I said, she's a work in progress."

"He's not a bio-weapon Steel," Max said with a grin. "We have seen humans react like that. That's what happens when I get some on Mom."

"Oh," Steel paused mid rant and squinted his optic at Jack. "I still got my eye on you!" He whipped around to face the bike. "You too gorgeous! Don't think you are seducing me with your smooth curves and high powered engine and experimental fuel source! Thought I do like a lady with a little mystery!"

Jack 's face contorted as if at some inner joke and he let a choked off chuckle escaped as he leaned towards Max.

"Is he…expecting a response?" he asked.

"I once had to witness him chat up the hand dryer in a public bathroom," Max said rolling his eyes. "So probably not, but who knows?"

They chuckled and Jack turned back to adjust a setting on the bike.

"So now you know my secret identity," Max said. "What now?"

"Well when my cover is blown I usually report to my commanding officer," Jack replied, glancing over his shoulder. "Granted it was usually blown by training agents acting on his orders but I think the policy is sound."

"Uggh!" Max slumped. "Army protocol bites. But I guess it probably is the best idea to call Uncle Ferris."

"Yeah," Steel perched on his shoulder, squinting his display into a sullen sulk. "We wouldn't want to keep secrets now would we?"