Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story except Mindy/Morgan McGrath.
People screamed when the wall collapsed. When they saw Psycho, they panicked. Everyone either skated or ran for the nearest exit. Almost everyone.
Mindy stared at Psycho. She was frozen in shock. She'd seen some pretty strange things in her life, but she'd never seen anything like this outside of the movies. Part of her brain screamed at her to get away from here as fast as possible, but her body didn't seem the least bit interested in listening. Well, she found herself thinking, I can't say all those chicks who just stand there when the bad guy attacks are stupid anymore. Now she understood. They were so surprised or scared, their brains couldn't register much or they just couldn't move.
Why isn't she running? thought Josh. Psycho knew all about his secret identity and if he realized Mindy was with him, he might do something to her. He grabbed her arm and yanked her toward an exit. Pete was waiting for them.
"Well, look who's here," smirked Psycho as he spotted Josh leading a girl away. "Always got to be a hero, don't ya?"
Josh heard the comment and knew he'd been spotted. He skated faster, Mindy in tow. He shoved her into Pete's arms. "Get her out of here," he ordered. Then he took off in another direction.
Pete nodded and started to pull her away. Her shock started to wear off. When her brain registered that she was being seperated from Josh, she began to struggle. She struggled even more when she realized that nut job was aiming one of his weapons at Josh. "Josh, look out!" she screamed.
Josh ducked as he skated towards the locker rooms. A whole about 3 times the size of his head appeared in the wall beside him. If he could just get someplace where no one could see him, he could go into Max mode and kick Psycho's demented butt.
Pete was having one hell of a time just keeping Mindy restrained, let alone could he actually get her out the door. How can someone so small be so strong? he wondered, frusterated.
Mindy was in a total panic. What in the hell was Josh doing? She tried desperatly to break away from Pete, who'd obviously built up some muscle since she last saw him. "Let me go!" she shouted. He ignored her and she mentally cursed. He had her arms pinned, so she couldn't punch him. Couldn't kick him 'cause she was wearing skates and might kill him. Couldn't head-butt him or bite him because he was carefully keeping her just out of range for that. Damn his long memory! And that lunatic was shooting at her cousin!
About half of the people had gotten out now. Josh didn't have time to look back, so he just hoped Mindy and Pete were safe. He dodged a few more shots. Finally, he made it through the doors. Quickly, he made sure he was alone. He hit a button on his bio-link and was instantly covered in a warm glow. Gone were the blond hair and brown eyes, replaced by brown hair and blue eyes. His outfit changed into his N'Tek uniform. He was no longer Josh McGrath. He was Max Steel.
The doors were blown apart by another blast from Psycho's weapon. Fortunatly, Max was standing well away from them. If he knew Psycho, and he did, In a few seconds he would decide to terrorize the people still in the building both for fun and to make things more difficult for Max. He only had to wait for it. Max switched to stealth mode and snuck out the doors.
"Nobody move!" yelled Psycho, pointing what could only be described as some sort of lazer cannon at the few remaining people. Mindy and Pete were among them.
Max swore under his breath. "Bro, tell me the rest of the team is on the way," he whispered.
"Hang tough, hermano. They'll be a few minutes," answered Berto. I sent Hawk just in case."
Max moved behind a soda machine. The crowd was too distracted to pay any attention to his general area. He switched out of stealth mode and stepped out. "Hey, Smiley. Long time no see," he drawled.
Psycho tuned and fired the cannon straight at him. Max dodged the blast and several more with lightning fast reflexes. "Not long enough, Steel," growled Psycho.
Mindy watched, wide-eyed as this guy dodged the lazer cannon's blasts like it was nothing. What was he, nuts? No one could keep dodging like that forever, no matter how good they were. And that other guy, Smiley he had called him, didn't seem to be having any trouble with his trigger finger. The brunett guy was slowly making his way closer to Smiley as he continued his dodging acrobatics. He was barely winded. Mindy had never seen anything like it. Who was that guy?
Max worked his way closer. If he could just disarm Psycho, he would be able to take him on hand to hand. Hopfully, everyone could get out while they fought. At the very least it would buy some time for the others to arrive and lend him a hand. When he got within range, he lashed a kick at the cannon, sending it flying. Psycho snarled and punched Max in the face, causing him to fly back a few feet. Before he could recover, Smiley launched himself onto him.
Max braced himself a split second before impact. Punches were thrown. Unfortunatly for Max, Smiley had most of the leverage. Blocking a punch, he gritted his teeth. "Anytime now would be good, bro," he grated.
"ETA one minute. Just hang in there Max," answered Berto.
"Oh, sure. Easy for you to say." That said, Max brought up his legs under Psycho. He flew over Max and landed hard on his back. Taking the opportunity, Max jumped to his feet and faced him. Smiley was on his feet in an instant. They both took on a fighting stance.
The hostages watched helplessly as the two fought. As they fought, Mindy's eyes strayed to the hole where Smiley had entered. She saw, to her horror, two men in some kind of strange body armor sneaking in. The brunett had his back to the hole and didn't see them creeping up behind him. In a couple of seconds, he would be toast.
"Behind you!" Max heard someone yell and turned to see two Dread agents coming up from behind. He backflipped over them and knocked their heads together. They crashed to the floor, out cold. He looked at the crowd to see the owner of the voice. Mindy. He should have known. He gave her a brief look of gratitude before turning back to Smiley.
Whoa was the only thought in Mindy's mind. Those two guys were down for the count. They were wearing helmets. Damn that guy must be strong. When he sent her a thankful look, she actually got a look at his face. Didn't she know him from somewhere?
"Whoo-hooo!"
"Huh?" Smiley looked up just as a pair of boots connected with his face.
Max just looked at Kat as she landed next to him and took on a fighting stance. "What kept you?"
"Sorry. Traffic," she quipped.
Several other N'Tek agents burst into the building and began ushering out the hostages. Max breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his cousin and his friend taken outside.
Mindy struggled against the agent that was pushing her outside. "No, you don't understand! My cousin is still in there!"
"Miss, we're getting everyone out. You'll see your cousin outside," he said calmly.
"No, I saw him go in one of the locker rooms and he didn't come back out," she insisted. "And that guy was taking cracks at him. He could be hurt."
"Alright. If you go outside, we'll try to find your cousin. What's his name?"
"Josh McGrath." For some reason, he gave her the oddest look when she said that. Reluctantly, she allowed herself to be taken out of the building, casting one last look over her shoulder.
"Well, looks like I've overstayed my welcome," commented Psycho. "It's been real." He tossed a smoke grenade at the two agents. It went off immeadiatly and both began coughing. "Be seeing you again, Steel!"
Max rushed out of the smoke cloud and toward Psycho's retreating voice. There was a commotion outside. He ran out just in time to see a small aircraft take off. Oddly, there was no sound and the craft was out of sight in seconds. Not even Hawk moved that fast. There were several agents on the ground. Max and Kat quickly checked them out. They would be fine. The hostages appeared scared and shaken up, but unhurt.
"Max, you should come back to HQ. Psycho never gives up so easy. He's up to something. We should try to figure out what it is. Hawk is waiting out back."
"Gottcha, bro," said Max. He headed back inside.
"Wait," said Mindy, grasping Max's arm. He turned to her, surprised. "My cousin Josh is still in there. They won't let me back in to find him. Could you find him, please?" She looked at him, pleading with her eyes.
"Uh, what does he look like?" he asked.
"Um, he's about your height, blond, brown eyes."
"I'll see what I can do."
Mindy let out a sigh of relief and released his arm.
"Hermano," Berto said with a warning tone. He was pretty sure what Max was about to do.
Sorry, bro. I can't just dissapear on her. She'll start a riot. You've never seen her when she's determined. She won't stop until she gets some answers. She might inadvertantly compromise N'Tek or something."
"You're exaggerating."
"Just ask my dad. He'll understand and he'll explain about her." He changed back into Josh. "I'll talk to you later, bro." He walked back out to Mindy and Pete. As soon as she spotted him, he braced himself. It was a good thing, because she nearly knocked him over.
"Oh, thank god," she said as she hugged him. "Where were you and what were you thinking?"
"I, uh, um..." He looked at Pete for an excuse. Pete just shrugged.
Suddenly, Mindy pulled away and slapped Josh on the arm as hard as she could, to the unutterable surprise of Josh, Pete, and Berto. "Ow!"
She glared at him. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Then she threw her arms around him again.
His arms went around her automatically, but his confused expression remained. He scowled as he heard both Pete and Berto burst out laughing and a few agents and civilians who had witnessed all that snickering. "Oh, shut up!" he said, mostly to his two friends. This only produced more laughter. It also caused Mindy to pull back a bit and look up at him quizzically. "Not you." She hugged him again and his friends laughed even harder. He sighed and led Mindy to his car. They both needed some rest after tonight.
"Wait a second," she said, stopping and looking around. "Where did that guy go?"
"He," Josh racked his brain, "went out the back. He said thanks for warning him about those two guys sneaking up on him."
"Oh." She looked dissapointed. "I didn't get a chance to thank him. And ask him where he learned to move like that."
Josh bit back a smile as they got in the car. It's a long story cuz, he thought.
_______________________________________________________________________ So, what do you think? I should warn anyone who's reading this right now that it could be a while between chapters. It all depends on if I have time to write and if I'm having writers block or not. Plus, I'm working on some other stuff. Sorry if it's a long wait for the next chapter.
People screamed when the wall collapsed. When they saw Psycho, they panicked. Everyone either skated or ran for the nearest exit. Almost everyone.
Mindy stared at Psycho. She was frozen in shock. She'd seen some pretty strange things in her life, but she'd never seen anything like this outside of the movies. Part of her brain screamed at her to get away from here as fast as possible, but her body didn't seem the least bit interested in listening. Well, she found herself thinking, I can't say all those chicks who just stand there when the bad guy attacks are stupid anymore. Now she understood. They were so surprised or scared, their brains couldn't register much or they just couldn't move.
Why isn't she running? thought Josh. Psycho knew all about his secret identity and if he realized Mindy was with him, he might do something to her. He grabbed her arm and yanked her toward an exit. Pete was waiting for them.
"Well, look who's here," smirked Psycho as he spotted Josh leading a girl away. "Always got to be a hero, don't ya?"
Josh heard the comment and knew he'd been spotted. He skated faster, Mindy in tow. He shoved her into Pete's arms. "Get her out of here," he ordered. Then he took off in another direction.
Pete nodded and started to pull her away. Her shock started to wear off. When her brain registered that she was being seperated from Josh, she began to struggle. She struggled even more when she realized that nut job was aiming one of his weapons at Josh. "Josh, look out!" she screamed.
Josh ducked as he skated towards the locker rooms. A whole about 3 times the size of his head appeared in the wall beside him. If he could just get someplace where no one could see him, he could go into Max mode and kick Psycho's demented butt.
Pete was having one hell of a time just keeping Mindy restrained, let alone could he actually get her out the door. How can someone so small be so strong? he wondered, frusterated.
Mindy was in a total panic. What in the hell was Josh doing? She tried desperatly to break away from Pete, who'd obviously built up some muscle since she last saw him. "Let me go!" she shouted. He ignored her and she mentally cursed. He had her arms pinned, so she couldn't punch him. Couldn't kick him 'cause she was wearing skates and might kill him. Couldn't head-butt him or bite him because he was carefully keeping her just out of range for that. Damn his long memory! And that lunatic was shooting at her cousin!
About half of the people had gotten out now. Josh didn't have time to look back, so he just hoped Mindy and Pete were safe. He dodged a few more shots. Finally, he made it through the doors. Quickly, he made sure he was alone. He hit a button on his bio-link and was instantly covered in a warm glow. Gone were the blond hair and brown eyes, replaced by brown hair and blue eyes. His outfit changed into his N'Tek uniform. He was no longer Josh McGrath. He was Max Steel.
The doors were blown apart by another blast from Psycho's weapon. Fortunatly, Max was standing well away from them. If he knew Psycho, and he did, In a few seconds he would decide to terrorize the people still in the building both for fun and to make things more difficult for Max. He only had to wait for it. Max switched to stealth mode and snuck out the doors.
"Nobody move!" yelled Psycho, pointing what could only be described as some sort of lazer cannon at the few remaining people. Mindy and Pete were among them.
Max swore under his breath. "Bro, tell me the rest of the team is on the way," he whispered.
"Hang tough, hermano. They'll be a few minutes," answered Berto. I sent Hawk just in case."
Max moved behind a soda machine. The crowd was too distracted to pay any attention to his general area. He switched out of stealth mode and stepped out. "Hey, Smiley. Long time no see," he drawled.
Psycho tuned and fired the cannon straight at him. Max dodged the blast and several more with lightning fast reflexes. "Not long enough, Steel," growled Psycho.
Mindy watched, wide-eyed as this guy dodged the lazer cannon's blasts like it was nothing. What was he, nuts? No one could keep dodging like that forever, no matter how good they were. And that other guy, Smiley he had called him, didn't seem to be having any trouble with his trigger finger. The brunett guy was slowly making his way closer to Smiley as he continued his dodging acrobatics. He was barely winded. Mindy had never seen anything like it. Who was that guy?
Max worked his way closer. If he could just disarm Psycho, he would be able to take him on hand to hand. Hopfully, everyone could get out while they fought. At the very least it would buy some time for the others to arrive and lend him a hand. When he got within range, he lashed a kick at the cannon, sending it flying. Psycho snarled and punched Max in the face, causing him to fly back a few feet. Before he could recover, Smiley launched himself onto him.
Max braced himself a split second before impact. Punches were thrown. Unfortunatly for Max, Smiley had most of the leverage. Blocking a punch, he gritted his teeth. "Anytime now would be good, bro," he grated.
"ETA one minute. Just hang in there Max," answered Berto.
"Oh, sure. Easy for you to say." That said, Max brought up his legs under Psycho. He flew over Max and landed hard on his back. Taking the opportunity, Max jumped to his feet and faced him. Smiley was on his feet in an instant. They both took on a fighting stance.
The hostages watched helplessly as the two fought. As they fought, Mindy's eyes strayed to the hole where Smiley had entered. She saw, to her horror, two men in some kind of strange body armor sneaking in. The brunett had his back to the hole and didn't see them creeping up behind him. In a couple of seconds, he would be toast.
"Behind you!" Max heard someone yell and turned to see two Dread agents coming up from behind. He backflipped over them and knocked their heads together. They crashed to the floor, out cold. He looked at the crowd to see the owner of the voice. Mindy. He should have known. He gave her a brief look of gratitude before turning back to Smiley.
Whoa was the only thought in Mindy's mind. Those two guys were down for the count. They were wearing helmets. Damn that guy must be strong. When he sent her a thankful look, she actually got a look at his face. Didn't she know him from somewhere?
"Whoo-hooo!"
"Huh?" Smiley looked up just as a pair of boots connected with his face.
Max just looked at Kat as she landed next to him and took on a fighting stance. "What kept you?"
"Sorry. Traffic," she quipped.
Several other N'Tek agents burst into the building and began ushering out the hostages. Max breathed a sigh of relief as he saw his cousin and his friend taken outside.
Mindy struggled against the agent that was pushing her outside. "No, you don't understand! My cousin is still in there!"
"Miss, we're getting everyone out. You'll see your cousin outside," he said calmly.
"No, I saw him go in one of the locker rooms and he didn't come back out," she insisted. "And that guy was taking cracks at him. He could be hurt."
"Alright. If you go outside, we'll try to find your cousin. What's his name?"
"Josh McGrath." For some reason, he gave her the oddest look when she said that. Reluctantly, she allowed herself to be taken out of the building, casting one last look over her shoulder.
"Well, looks like I've overstayed my welcome," commented Psycho. "It's been real." He tossed a smoke grenade at the two agents. It went off immeadiatly and both began coughing. "Be seeing you again, Steel!"
Max rushed out of the smoke cloud and toward Psycho's retreating voice. There was a commotion outside. He ran out just in time to see a small aircraft take off. Oddly, there was no sound and the craft was out of sight in seconds. Not even Hawk moved that fast. There were several agents on the ground. Max and Kat quickly checked them out. They would be fine. The hostages appeared scared and shaken up, but unhurt.
"Max, you should come back to HQ. Psycho never gives up so easy. He's up to something. We should try to figure out what it is. Hawk is waiting out back."
"Gottcha, bro," said Max. He headed back inside.
"Wait," said Mindy, grasping Max's arm. He turned to her, surprised. "My cousin Josh is still in there. They won't let me back in to find him. Could you find him, please?" She looked at him, pleading with her eyes.
"Uh, what does he look like?" he asked.
"Um, he's about your height, blond, brown eyes."
"I'll see what I can do."
Mindy let out a sigh of relief and released his arm.
"Hermano," Berto said with a warning tone. He was pretty sure what Max was about to do.
Sorry, bro. I can't just dissapear on her. She'll start a riot. You've never seen her when she's determined. She won't stop until she gets some answers. She might inadvertantly compromise N'Tek or something."
"You're exaggerating."
"Just ask my dad. He'll understand and he'll explain about her." He changed back into Josh. "I'll talk to you later, bro." He walked back out to Mindy and Pete. As soon as she spotted him, he braced himself. It was a good thing, because she nearly knocked him over.
"Oh, thank god," she said as she hugged him. "Where were you and what were you thinking?"
"I, uh, um..." He looked at Pete for an excuse. Pete just shrugged.
Suddenly, Mindy pulled away and slapped Josh on the arm as hard as she could, to the unutterable surprise of Josh, Pete, and Berto. "Ow!"
She glared at him. "Don't you ever scare me like that again!" Then she threw her arms around him again.
His arms went around her automatically, but his confused expression remained. He scowled as he heard both Pete and Berto burst out laughing and a few agents and civilians who had witnessed all that snickering. "Oh, shut up!" he said, mostly to his two friends. This only produced more laughter. It also caused Mindy to pull back a bit and look up at him quizzically. "Not you." She hugged him again and his friends laughed even harder. He sighed and led Mindy to his car. They both needed some rest after tonight.
"Wait a second," she said, stopping and looking around. "Where did that guy go?"
"He," Josh racked his brain, "went out the back. He said thanks for warning him about those two guys sneaking up on him."
"Oh." She looked dissapointed. "I didn't get a chance to thank him. And ask him where he learned to move like that."
Josh bit back a smile as they got in the car. It's a long story cuz, he thought.
_______________________________________________________________________ So, what do you think? I should warn anyone who's reading this right now that it could be a while between chapters. It all depends on if I have time to write and if I'm having writers block or not. Plus, I'm working on some other stuff. Sorry if it's a long wait for the next chapter.