Disclaimers: Me owning Max Steel is as likely as Saddam, Bush and Blair calling off this war, k?

A/N: Woah! Høw løng has it actually been? Well øver a week! I apøløgize because the way I left the last chap, it really left me nøwhere 2 gø in terms of pløt.

Oh, and this question has been bugging me 4eva: where do ppl get the info that says Jim was killed in the explosion at N-Tek?

Chapter 3:

~Five years later~

"It's a good thing it's spring break now, I can disappear without anyone noticing!" Melissa told herself, or so it seemed, as she walked out of the front entrance to Del Oro high school, a bag on her back, and a skateboard in her hands.

"Shame. I already miss your lame excuses!" Berto said sarcastically.

"You do remember that I can come into the TSO and destroy it anytime I please?" Melissa asked rhetorically, placing the skateboard on the ground and pushing off.

"Like you had the heart to do that." Berto quipped, running a scan of her systems.

"So, what's the mission?" She asked, grinding down a hand rail and jumping off at the end.

"Aparently DREDD has been reformed, and one of their members used to work for the NSA."

"The NSA? Why would they want to join DREDD's rank?" Berto shrugged, although Melissa couldn't see him.

"I'm not entirely sure. Some kind of work dispute from what I can gather. You need to come back to base immediately."

"I was gonna come anyway." She replied, before switching the bio-link off.

*****

"You haven't uncovered any more information about this person?" Rachel asked as soon as she stepped into the TSO, along with Max. After more than the occasional life-or-death mission (and some 'coaxing' from Melissa) Max and Rachel were now engaged.

"Apart from a name, Jake Brennan, all I've found is that the information he stole from the NSA was more important than we first thought."

"How important?" Melissa pressed, anxious to know what she was likely to meet on the mission.

"It's mainly defense items, like the Star Wars programme(*), but there is no way he could have gathered all of this information from the NSA. They wouldn't have access to information of this calibre.

"The base where Jake Brennan works is situated in Mesquite, Texas. Apparently, some of DREDD's henchpeople work there. There are some reports of Psycho being spotted in the vicinity. You'll be taking the Behemoth."

"You're joking. Now?!" Melissa exploded, and turned round to stare at everyone. She shrugged. "I guess that means I'll have to use one of my 'lame excuses'!" She finished, and walked out of the room, pushing past her brother.

"OK, what was *that* all about?" Max asked, glancing at Berto.

"Search me!" Berto said innocently.

*****

"How on earth are you supposed to get past this. . .*thing*?!" Melissa asked, pausing the game and turning to look at her brother. They were playing Metroid Prime, and Melissa was stuck on the first boss.

"If you give it to me, I'll do it. . ." Josh began, but his sister cut him off.

"I can do this myself, just tell me how to beat it!"

"OK," Josh relented, and Melissa turned her attention back to the game. "Run around and shoot it in the mouth." He told her with a sly grin. That's when she really exploded.

"That's what I've been doing for the past half-hour!" She said, but was interrupted when the doors opened and Molly stepped in.

"I should have known it was you two, judging by the amount of noise. Try to keep it down." That said, she left, and Melissa glared at Josh.

"Fine, if you think you're so good at it, you fight it!" She said, handing the controller to him over her shoulder. Within ten minutes, Josh had defeated the parasite queen, and handed the control back to Melissa, a smug grin on his face.

"OK then, Mr. Big-shot, lets see how good you are at Sonic Adventure!" She said, switching the discs over.

"Hey, not fair! You know I can't control those characters!"

"Tough," Melissa replied, and got ready to thrash her brother once more.

*****

"That's it? It doesn't look remotely like any kind of base!" Kat said, looking at the screen at the front of Behemoth. The 'base' was little more than someone's house, hardly the place that you expect a terrorist organisation to be based.

"Don't let the façade fool you. There's practically a whole underground city located here, this is only one of the entrances. Our satelites can't penetrate that far underground, but I'm working on accessing the schematics. You'll be going in blind for a while.

"Lovely." Rachel muttered to herself, fortunately no one heard her.

"Hawk and Hawk2 are ready to go. Good luck." Berto finished, before turning the screen off. Molly would be piloting Behemoth while the mission was taking place. A few years ago, when Maroit had been singled out as the mole and had disappeared, Jim had been promoted, and was now in control of most N-Tek missions, including this one.

"Lets' go then!" Melissa said nervously, wanting this to be over. It was her first mission, and she was not looking forward to it at all.

*****

"Are you sure you're OK with this?" Kat asked from the front of Hawk2, switching to auto-pilot for a while.

"I'me fine," she replied. She sounded brave, but her eyes told another story.

"Look, I know you. You're scared, but that's alright. I was like this on my first mission, and so was your brother, apparently. Nothing'll happen, trust me." Kat told her firmly, before turning her attention back to piloting Hawk2. Melissa nodded out of habit, and looked out the side of Hawk2, at the landscape of Texas, before going into Jen mode.

*****

"There are two DREDD guards at the back door, it shouldn't be a problem getting in." Rachel informed Kat and Jen as soon as they arrived. Jen looked at Max and they both smiled.

"No problem, just leave it to us!" Max commented confidentally, turning Stealth mode on, Jen following suit.

*****

"What was that?" One guard asked the other, hearing a noise.

"What noise?" The other guard said, not having heard it. Guard #1 raised his gun and aimed it at the roof.

"It sounded like it came from up there." Guard #1 said

"It was probably a bird or something." Guard #2 siad, but raising his gun nevertheless. That was the last thing they knew. Ten seconds later, both of them were lying unconscious on the floor, unaware of who or what had attacked them.

"So, where do we go from here?" Max whispered to Berto, after the team had re-grouped.

"400 meters straight ahead, then the fourth doo on your right. The entrance is down there." Berto replied, checking the schematics.

*****

On the way to the entrance, they encountered little resistance, which seemed worrying to Rachel. Voicing her concerns, some of the others started to get a little anxious.

"Are you sure we're in the right place?" Jen asked nervously, glancing around after almost fifteen minutes of random searching.

"Positive, it has to be around here somewhere." Kat replied, scanning the walls for anything out of the ordinary. "Got it!" She said, pressing a near-invisible utton on the wall.

"Let the good times roll." Max muttered, making Jen grin. He wasn't looking forward to this anymore than she was.

"Ok, you need to split up. As far as I can tell from the schematics, there's a computer room to your left, about 178 meters away, but is heavily guarded."

"Guess we found where they're hiding the data, then." Jen almost whispered into the bio-link. "I'll go for the computer." She said confidentally, looking up at the rest of the group.

"Ok, but you'd better. . ."

"Be careful. I know, Max. Stop treating me like a little kid!" She said, activating Stealth mode.

"C'mon, this way." Rachel said, leaning her head to the right, telling them that they should be as far away from the computer room as possible. Grudgingly, Max followed her, Kat disappearing straight ahead.

*****

"'Heavily guarded', huh?" Jen asked Berto rhetorically, knocking the last of the three guards to the ground, unconscious. "Now, how do I get in?" She said, turning her attention to the door.

"It looks like a scanner," Berto began. "Pick one of the guards. . ." He didn't get any further then that.

"Piece of cake. You'd think they'd toughen up the security here." Jen commented, having kicked the door right off of its hinges and deactivating Turbo mode. Scanning the room, she noticed a single computer. Settling herself down in front of it, she grabbed what she hoped was a blank disc, and began to download the data.

*****

"Does DREDD have an exhaustable supply of guards or what?" Kat asked herself rhetorically, lnocking what seemd to be the thousanth guard head first into a wall.

"Not quite, although it can seem like it sometimes." A familiar voice said behind her, and Kat spun around, poised for a fight.

"I don't think that you'll be going anywhere." Psycho commented, jabbing the sparking end of the shock stick into Kat's abdomen.

*****

"I think it's safe to assume that there is nothing of interest down here." Rachel commented, staring down the dark, empty corridor.

"Hmmm." Max wasn't convinced, and continued down the corridor, scanning for any posible threats until they ended up somewhere familiar.

"Didn't we just. . ." Max began, and Rachel nodded. Just then, both of them heard Kat's scream piercing through the dead silence.

"Let's move." Max said simply, before dashing off.

*****

"Download's nearly complete. How's it look from your end?" Jess asked, watching the bar on the computer screen creep up towards the 100% mark. Reaching the mark, a disc was ejected from the tower block, and Jen grabbed it, stuffing it into a case and then into a bag, after writing in a virus, using Berto's instructions, that would disrupt the whole system.

"It looks like we might need some back-up." Max answered.

"I'm on my way." Jess called into the bio-link, running out of the room and towards her brother. . .right into the waiting figure of Psycho.

"Hey, Smiley. Long time no see. So, what have you been doing to keep busy? Holding a city to ransom? Plotting a new way to take over the world? Perhaps a new way to get rid of my. . .of Max." Jen cursed herself mentally for her stupidity. No one outside of N-Tek, apart from their friends, knew that she and Josh were siblings, and they planned on keeping it that way.

"More like getting rid of one of the members of Team Steel, very easily I might add." Psycho said, before activating a switch on a remote he was carrying.

"Fairwell, Steel." Were his last words before disappearing down one of the many corridors. Nothing seemed to happen and, to anyone who didn't hame max powers, nothing would, but not to Jen.

"Max? We;ve got a problem here. Get out, now!" She ordered, after hearing what seemed like gas escaping from a pipeline, and followed her own advice.

*****

"What was that?!" Max asked as a massive explosion rocked the whole landscape, and looked back at the building. Thin whisps of smoke were curling upwards through the open window, leaving an acrid smell in the air.

"Gas explosion." Jen replied, crouching down to examine Kat. "She'll be fine, just a bit annoyed when she wakes up." She commented with a grin.

"They obviously didn't want us to find anything then." Rachel commented, and then turned to Jen. "Did you get the information?"

"Did you ever doubt me?" Jen asked rhetorically, pulling out the disk. "Mission accomplished. Now let's get back to Del Oro before my whole social life is ruined!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(*) = Star Wars defense programme. This is a defense programme that, if completed, will be situated above the UK, safeguarding the USA and the UK from any possible missiles. There has been a lot of conflict over this, and I think it has yet to go beyond the planning stages.

A/N: I think that was the longest chapter I've written so far! Go me! And I wrote it in one day! Go me again!

If anyone is interested, I've got a website started up, which will deal with fan fiction and original fiction. Mail me 4 more info, I'm running out of time here! See ya!