Chapter 13

(Third Person P.O.V.)

"Jake couldn't we board Phoenix, fly away and blast Saber to bits?!" Max asked worriedly and frantically, his tone of voice matching his facial expression as he looked at Nez.

Jake merely looked back and Max and said, "Phoenix has one precision laser, we could turn the station into Swiss cheese, but those are impact explosives, there's no guarantee they would blow before it was too late." calmly and collected but still serious, his tone of voice matching his facial expression as the entire station began to shake again as he finished speaking.

"I have to get my hands on those thrusters or Del Oro Bay is history!" Jake said calmly and collected but still serious, his tone of voice matching his facial expression.

The entire space station then shook again, after which Psycho sent another video transmission to Max and Jake's location in the station and said to them both, "Feel that, another shutter, eggheads call it orbital decay, Saber's getting ready for its swan song, or should I say swan dive." mockingly with gestures to emphasize his mocking and taunting them, his tone of voice matching his facial expression that his mask gave him.

Max then punched the control panel to end the video transmission on the screens before saying, "He wants us to try and stop him! Why take that risk?! We're missing something here!" in an annoyed and irritated tone of voice and matching facial expression as he looked at Jake as he pointed that out to him.

Just then Saber began to shake again, as the computerized voice over the P.A. system spoke and said, "Structural integrity at 87% and falling!" as Max and Nez both struggled to stay standing on their feet.

The computerized voice then spoke again over the P.A. system and said, "Decompression in docking bay one!" which made Psycho turn on his monitor and see both Max and Jake had been ejected out the airlock, which made him say, "Now ain't that a crying shame." in a slightly disappointed tone of voice and thanks to his mask matching facial expression.

After seeing both Max and Jake ejected from the airlock and floating in space on the monitor Vitriol then walks up to Psycho and says, "Wonderful, now they can't let us in!" annoyed and disappointed, his facial expression matching his tone of voice, to which Psycho merely looked at him and said, "Doesn't matter, we can reach the thing from outside." casually, his tone of voice matching his facial expression given to him by his mask.

"Brilliant, how come you didn't come up with that little brainstorm an hour ago Smiley?!" Vitriol said mockingly and tauntingly to Psycho, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

After saying that Psycho then pushed Vitriol against the wall and took off his mask, revealing his real skull like cybernetic face and angrily said, "Don't ever call me Smiley! You rig the last of the explosives, I'll get what we came for." clearly annoyed from the tone of his voice, before leaving Vitriol to continue doing what he told him to do while he put on the helmet for his space suit and went outside of the space station from one of the airlocks.

Psycho then began making his way towards Phoenix, but didn't see and therefore know that Max and Jake were hiding outside and saw him heading towards Phoenix.

"Check out Smiley, you don't suppose he's on a rescue mission." Max said sarcastically, his facial expression very clearly matching his tone of voice.

"You were right, he's headed straight for Phoenix." Jake said calmly and collected but still serious, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

"Only thing that made sense, they trashed Saber and killed all of the crew in the station trick us into bringing our bird." Max said calmly and collected but still very serious, made very clear from his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

"With the Max Probes from Phoenix's hull Dread could back engineer all of our MX technology!" Roberto said in a calm and collected but still serious tone of voice with a matching facial expression over the communicator.

"You guys have to hurry and do something quick, we can't let that happen!" Kubo said in a calm and collected but still very serious and almost urgent tone of voice and matching facial expression over the communicator.

"Kubo is right, I have to stop him." Max said calmly and collected but still seriously, his facial expression matching his tone of voice as he was about to go after Psycho until Nez stopped him and said, Let me." calmly and collected but still seriously as shown by his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

"But Nez you have to save Del Oro." Max said calmly and collected but still seriously, made obvious by his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

"Don't worry, there's a better way, just keep Vitriol away from the thrusters, now go!" Jake said urgently, his tone of voice matching his facial expression as Max went to go deal with Vitriol.

Jake then fired his grapple hook and line which latched on to Phoenix's wing and pulled Jake to it, which Psycho saw and went after him as quickly as he could, Jake then used his magnetized boots to stick to Phoenix's wing, Psycho responded by switching his cybernetic arm to pincer claw mode and jumping at Nez in order to try and grab him with it.

Jake then kicked Psycho away, which made him grab on to one of Phoenix's main thrusters with his arm in claw mode.

"Martinez the engines now!" Jake said loudly and clearly over the communicator, to which Roberto gladly obliged and turned on Phoenix's engines remotely while simply saying, "Done!", igniting the thrusters, causing Psycho's cybernetic metal arm to melt as he screamed and was sent hurdling off into space, to which Jake simply looked and said, "See ya, Smiley." calmly and collected, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

Meanwhile back inside Saber, Vitriol had just finished planting and arming the last of the explosives.

"There, done." Vitriol said before Max came in from behind him and said, "In every way!" while punching Vitriol in his face, who quickly recovered and punched Max back in his face, he then tried to punch Max again only for Max to quickly recover and kick him several times in his mid section, send Vitriol backwards, as he quickly recovered and charged up the energy in his arms and said, Thanks Steel, I was hoping for someone to hurt!" eagerly, his facial expression matching his tone of voice as he fired the energy beams from his arms and hit Max directly sending him flying back into the wall, Max then quickly got back up and dodged as Vitriol fired another blast from his arms.

Seeing all of this were the other members of Team Steel from the Ops room back on Earth, Rachel then shouted over the communicator frantically, "Max go left! No your other left!" until Roberto interrupted her and said, "That's not the kind of help he needs, please Rachel, let me do my job." calmly and collected but still serious, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

"Max, I have an idea." Roberto said in a calm and collected but still serious tone of voice and matching facial expression over the communicator.

"Yeah bro, I see it." Max said calmly and collected as he dodged Vitriol's beams, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

"But getting to it is something else altogether!" Max said calmly and collected as he dodged another blast from Vitriol, his tone of voice matching his facial expression.

"I can keep this up all night!" Vitriol said eagerly and enthusiastically, his facial expression matching his tone of voice as Max quickly replied, "Me too! Going Turbo!" as he activated the turbo mode on his Bio Link.

Max then ran at super high speed, avoiding Vitriol's beams and then knocking him down.

Vitriol then got back up and fired the energy beams from his arms again but Max dodged them and they ended up hitting the control panel behind Max which both destroyed and short circuited the controls for the artificial gravity inside of Saber.

Max then said, "Finally!" calmly and collected, Vitriol then replied with, "You think weightlessness is going to save you, I'm going to blow your bits to bits!" eagerly and enthusiastically, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

Max then replied with a simple, "Yeah, then show me." calmly and collected but also confidently, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

Vitriol then tried to blast Max with his arm beams only to be propelled backwards at very fast speed and slammed back of his head first into the wall knocking himself out unconscious.

Roberto then said over the communicator, "As we all learned in basic science class in school, Every action-" which was followed up by Max finishing the sentence by saying, "Has an equal and opposite reaction. Good call bro." gladly with a matching smile on his face as Max activated his magnetized boots, and Kubo happily nodded in agreement and simply said, "Indeed." over the communicator with a matching smile on his face.

The automated computerized voice then said, "Attention, Saber has achieved Earth's upper atmosphere, temperature up 96%!" over the P.A. system.

Jake then said, "Max and everyone else of team Steel, I have recovered the bodies of all of our deceased N-Tek personnel to bring back so they may have a proper funeral, also I'm using Phoenix's thrusters to force Saber into a new trajectory." calmly and collected but still seriously over the communicator, to which Max replied saying, "I'm on my way!" calmly and collected but still seriously his facial expression matching the tone of his voice.

Max then grabbed the unconscious Vitriol began quickly making his way back to Phoenix.

While waiting for Max and making a new trajectory for Saber Jake said, "The docking port can't take much more!" in a serious tone of voice and matching facial expression.

Roberto then spoke over the communicator and said, "You're clear! Ground tracking plots Saber to hit safely in the Pacific! Now disengage before you burn up upon re-entry!" calmly and collected but still seriously, his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

To which Jake replied saying, "I can't max isn't aboard!" very seriously, his tone of voice matching his facial expression.

This caused everyone in the Team Steel Ops room to go silent and have worried expressions on their faces, including Max's older brother and head of N-Tek Akito as he looked his his screen.

Just then Max spoke over the communicator saying, "We're in now, closing hatch!" in a serious tone of voice and matching facial expression as he tried to close the hatch but couldn't, to which Jake said, "Max!" seriously, to which Max replied, "Its jammed hold on!" seriously his tone of voice matching his facial expression.

Max then activated Turbo Mode on his Bio Link again and was now able to fully close and lock the hatch, he then said to Jake, "We're sealed, now go go!" in a serious tone of voice and matching facial expression over the communicator.

Phoenix then disengaged from Saber allowing it to break apart and land harmlessly into the ocean.

As Max entered the cockpit and took his seat next to Jake, Jake then said "E.T.A. Blue Base, six minutes." in a calm and collected but also relieved tone of voice and matching facial expression.

Max then said, "And our little friend Vitriol is secured in the back." calmly and collected but also relieved, his tone of voice matching his facial expression.

Max then looked at Nez who looked back at him who gestured for him to turn off communications, which Max did including those on his Bio Link as he said, "Okay Bio Links off." calmly and collected, his tone of voice matching his facial expression as they both looked at each other.

Max then said, "what's up?" curiously his facial expression matching his tone of voice.

to which Jake said, "I could tell before this mission started you wanted to talk to me about something, and privately at that, so what is it kid?" calmly and collected his tone of voice matching his facial expression.

Max then smiled and said, "Well I was hoping that I could ask you for some relationship advice, because I get the feeling that my girl Yuuko can do so better than a guy like me, seeing as how you were if not are still in a relationship with Rachel." slightly depressed in his voice but hidden by his smile but Jake noticed and said, "Kid trust me, I have seen the two of you together, you don't need relationship advice, because knowing the kind of person you are and all that you do, she can't do better than you, and seeing the real kind of person she is and everything she does, you can't do better than Yuuko, the two of you both really belong together and are made for each other." Nez said proudly, confidently and happily with a matching smile on his face as he placed a hand on Max's shoulder as max looked at him and smiled back and said, Thanks Jake, I really needed it and really appreciate it." happily, confidently and relieved, his tone of voice matching the smile on his face.

Jake then said, "Now with that said, mission is accomplished, let's go home kid." proudly and happily with a smile on his face that matched his tone of voice, to which Max simply replied, "Yeah." happily with a smile on his face that matched his tone of voice as he looked back at Jake.

To Be Continued.