The Crystal gems...Steven Universe...Maxwell Ignitus… just a weak group of fools.
Near a desolate factory far away from Beach City, or any real signs of life, was a junkyard filled with abandoned and rusty scraps of metal. A shadowy figure lives in this dilapidated area, and even calls it home. There, the metal kept it alive. With the many scraps, it whispers "Don't worry, you won't be alone any longer...you will be created into something wonderful." With a terrifying grin, it brings the metal to the factory. With a clap of it's hands, the factory comes back to life, machines activating and bending to the will of the being. It chuckles happily while it clutches a strange sickly green gemstone.
"GIVE ME BACK MY SANDWICH LION!" Max yells as he runs after a certain pink lion who stole his chocolate ice cream sandwich.
"That is Max food, not Lion food! Amethyst, feel free to help!" Amethyst just casually eats popcorn as Max struggles to catch the thieving magical beast. Steven soon comes by and sits next to Amethyst.
"What's going on?"
"Oh Lion just took Max's snack when he wasn't looking."
"Lion!" He pouts at the pink thief, albeit does find it funny how Max keeps coming close to catching Lion, only for Lion to just roar and teleport.
"MY SANDWICH! It was so young...I bet it was delicious." Max lays on the ground in over exaggerated disappointment.
"It'll be alright Max." Steven comes over and pats his head.
"Yeah I guess, I was so distracted by this letter I got, Lion took the sandwich right from under me."
"You got a letter!? What does it say? Who is it from? Is it from a secret admirer?"
"That's the problem. It doesn't say anything, just an address."
"An address? Maybe a...secret address?"
"Who knows. I'm gonna search the address online and see what I can find, I don't wanna go over to the address and find it out that I went to the sahara desert."
With that said, Max types in the address on his phone...only to find it used to belong to a factory that specialized in cars, specifically vans.
"A van factory! Hey maybe if we go there, we can find stuff to modify my dad's van."
"Hehehe, maybe like find huge wheels, or an engine that can make it drive over 200 miles per hour."
"Yeah! I'll go ask my dad if he can drive us there, you help get everything ready. This can be like our first road trip with you, me, and dad!"
"Sounds like a plan." As Steven runs off to the car wash though, Max had a strange feeling about the factory. He talked about it with the gems, asking if there was ever any gem activity in the area. As far as they knew, there was nothing dangerous about the area. That relieved Max a bit, yet he still had a bad feeling. He wanted to tell Steven, but seeing him so excited, he just couldn't break it to the kid. Before he knew it, he was on the road with Steven and Greg. Only thing was, Steven accidentally fell asleep in the back, leaving just Max and greg to converse.
"So uh, Max right? How are you faring with all the gem stuff. I mean, being human at one moment and suddenly transforming? Sounds pretty scary." Greg asked to start up a conversation.
"Hehehe, yeah, it wasn't easy. I always had to wear gloves to hide what I am, learn how to control my powers. I can't tell you how many times I accidentally ripped opened a door because of how strong I became. But I didn't let it stop me, I continued to explore the world and gained better control.
"Well that's nice to know, and it really makes me to happy to have you as a friend of Steven.
"It's no problem, he's an amazing kid...and I bet you're an amazing dad too, considering you never left him."
"What? I could never leave Steven, he's my son."
"I'm just saying, I've seen so many fathers leave their families behind for lesser situations than what you went through. Your lover gave her life to give you such a healthy and wonderful child. You easily could have just left him with the gems, but you instead chose to stay there and be the best dad ever for him." Max almost didn't notice that he was making Greg cry.
"Oh uh, I'm sorry."
"N-no, it's okay. I just never had someone tell me that."
"I'm just speaking the truth...want me to take the wheel?"
"Y-yes please." Max smiled as they switched seats, letting Greg rest as Max drove to the address.
After about 3 hours, they finally made it to the factory. It seemed like no one could ever live in this place, let alone send a letter. The three looked around for any signs of life, yet found no one. Worst of all, most of the car parts found were either too outdated or too broken to be of any use.
"I guess we came here for nothing. Maybe someone put the wrong address on the letter?"
"Well, it's okay. Maybe we can still have fun, 'roadtrip part two, the trip back home!'"
"Hehehe, yeah, well let's- ah!" Max yelped as he felt something pick him up from behind. The father and son gasped as they saw something emerge from the heap of scrap metal. A mechanized suit with powerful looking metal arms and legs, and in the center was a front of a truck, with a man covered in plastic trash, head to toe, hiding his identity. The headlights shine an ominous green at Max before the man, switches a lever, making the robot smash Maxwell into the ground.
"Max!"
"Steven no! It's too dangerous!" Greg could only watch as Steven ran toward Max and put up his shield to protect them both from the monstrous machine.
"Maxwell Ignitus, YOU'RE ROADKILL!" The man laughed as he switched more levers and out from the robot's chest fired giant blocks of metal. Max reacted quickly and grabbed Steven, jumping out of range of the attack.
"Greg, take Steven and get out of here. Steven don't argue, I need you to call Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl and tell them to get here as fast as they can. I'm not sure if I can beat this guy alone."
Steve wanted to protest but Greg grabbed his son and took him to the van.
"Hey! Reject transformer! The Universe family is not your enemy, I am!" With that said, Max pulls his shotgun and fires repeatedly at the metal titan. The man inside roars in anger and switches many levers and tries to smash Max. Maxwell was fortunately much faster, but his gun seemed useless. Putting his weapon away, he gets help from Obsidian and catches on fire, attacking the metal body parts.
"Your fire is useless, this suit is completely fireproof!"
"Well is it obsidian proof?" He jumps and elongates his obsidian hand until it becomes a sharp edge, and slices through one of the arms.
"Don't think you have won." With a chuckle, the mysterious man presses a button, and nanomachines pick up the am and instantly attach it to the body.
"Those nanobots….wait a minute."
"That's right, the dinner party was my doing. I wanted to make everyone turn against you, but it seems I must do things the old fashioned way." He presses another button and the nanomachines latch onto Max's body, all of them too fast and tiny to get rid of.
"Goodbye Ignitus." He presses another button and the nanobots glow brightly before detonating, exploding with enough power to destroy a two story house with ease.
"Well it seems that is the end." Just before he could walk away though in the mech, someone taps his shoulder. He turns to see a heavily damaged but still grinning Max inside the mech with him.
"How!? You should be dead!"
"It'll take more than a cheap trick to beat me. Now it's my turn to drive." As soon as he said that, he punches the man square in the face, and starts randomly flipping levers and pressing buttons.
The machine starts spinning, flashing it's lights, playing bad music, and doing the chicken dance.
Angrily the man pulls out his serrated machete and tries to slice up Max.
"Whoa! Easy there!"
"Shut up and bleed!" The man desperately slashed at Max, but fortunately Max was quite adept at fighting close quarters, easily dodging and delivering his own powerful strikes. The man yells out but then sees an ejector seat button he installed. With a grin he presses the button and launches Max out of the machine.
"Ow! My spleen!" He looks at the machine in a daze, only for a swift punch to send him flying. Max lands on a jutted out sharp piece of metal, making it pierce through his gut. Max groans from the pain, trying to get out but was stuck and bleeding fast. The machine walks closer to Max, the man inside chuckling as he goes to claim victory.
"Come on! We gotta hurry!" Steven yells as he leads the gems to the junkyard and they look for Max. Steven sees Max was pierced and the robot walking closer. He was about to get the others, but Max suddenly grins as he looks at the bot.
"Well...this can't be fun for you." He chuckles softly, his eyes having a strange gleam to them.
"What do you mean?"
"Simple, you're going to kill me in that robot suit, but won't get the real satisfaction." At that, the man stops in his tracks.
"It just isn't as satisfying as killing up close with your own hands. The coldness of their skin, their blood dripping with its beautiful crimson color, their face showing all of the little emotions. Oh it's so wonderful to savor it...right?~"
Max chuckles as the man walks out of the machine and brings out his machete.
"Right." The man grabs Max and raises his arm with the machete.
"Just one more thing, one thing you never let happen….never let me talk." Max gives a horrific grin before blowing ash and smoke out of his mouth and into the man's lungs.
"Gah! DIE!" Max only grins as the man tries to slash at him, but then starts coughing feverishly. "W-what did you do?!"
Max then began to laugh. It was small at first, but it grew louder. The man desperately struggled more and more. It shook the listeners to their core. Steven wanted to block it out so bad, but couldn't stop listening. They looked aghast as the man began to burn from the inside out. He pulls off the plastic bag covering his face, showing an already burned face that was beyond recognition. The man falls onto the ground, burned to ashes. Max's terrifying laughter going out through the whole junkyard. It was the laugh of pure insanity.