Day 21: Alternate Prompt 15: Reluctant Whumper

Spoilers for S2E7, S2E21, S2E25. Speech in italics come from S2E21


Characters: MAX

Warnings: none apply


He was here to help, both his creator and the family they worked so closely with. He enjoyed the work, it was fulfilling and helped him learn and grow.

So far his favourite mission had been to space, where he had helped Alan and Scott rescue Ned Telford and the iridium. Oh, and Gladys of course.

But he also enjoyed helping around the house. He was so proud of the fact that he made the best coffee in the house, that even Virgil loved his brew. His cookies were snapped up before he'd even placed them on the table.

And he adored Grandma. She and he had a secret – cooking! He loved to cook and she loved that he didn't burn or carbonise everything he cooked. Sometimes he wished she'd let him cook all the cookies for the family then he'd never have to hear Alan or Scott complain that the cookies tasted like feet.

'This is getting too easy for them.'

'It's not supposed to be a race. We're j-j-just testing out new equipment.'

'Then let's see how well those gloves really work!'

'MAX, go and sh-sh-shake things up a bit.'

He had been playing with Bertie, but at the request he looked over to Brains and Grandma, and they smiled at him. He beeped and whistled his affirmative and set off to the control hub. As he trundled up the slope he thought he could set the climbing wall to open and close a little more randomly and a little faster. That should 'shake things up' enough!

Touching the screen to begin a random sequence of wall shifts, he didn't recognise when everything happened.

One minute his algorithm was just slightly faster than before, the next moment MAX had dialled the intensity up to maximum. And as Kayo swung into the hub MAX saw red. She was going to ruin it!

Kayo had landed on his back and pulled him away from the control panel. With a beep of outrage he turned and swung a fist at her, which she barely managed to duck under before she had sprung up, and MAX aimed a roundhouse kick that had Kayo lurching back to avoid.

It had given her the opening she needed, and before he could stop her she'd slid underneath him and powered him down.

The next thing MAX was aware of was waking up in the living room next to John. He didn't know what had happened, but he knew Brains was in trouble and he sped to the rescue.

Afterwards there had been discussions about how to prevent The Mechanic from gaining access to their gear again and MAX had trundled off to a corner to contemplate what had happened.

He'd never done that before. Never had he gone against Brains' base programming. He crouched down low and beeped sadly. What had he done? He had almost injured his friends, had fought against Kayo. His servos could have crushed her…

A hand gently patted his head.

'MAX, are you alr-r-right?'

*Beep Beep*

'I k-k-know you didn't mean to, MAX. It was n-n-not your fault.'

*Beep Whistle Beep*

'W-w-we will get your programming c-c-cleaned out and you'll be yourself in no time.'

They spent a sleepless night going through all of his code, routing out a couple of redundant pathways and looking to see if there was anything left of what The Mechanic had inadvertently done to him.

Eventually Brains gave him a fond pat on the head, declared that it looked like they had managed to purge everything out that shouldn't be there and to shore up his security, and with a grateful whistle-beep MAX settled down to sleep.

He didn't give much more thought to the incident, trundling through the days on Tracy Island and helping out as he had before, whether that be by coffee, cooking or assisting Brains with the ships' maintenance.

Today was going to be different. It was another extension of himself that he was particularly proud of, and, judging from the delighted grin on Scott's face, he was not the only one.

Mini-MAX allowed him to be even more helpful than before and MAX loved this new version of himself. He flew around Scott's head before settling down to see what kind of help he could be.

Being in two places at once required a little more concentration than usual, and to achieve that MAX once more set some functions onto automatic and some he placed on running at bare minimum. He didn't need his big self to move around so much, and flying actually needed more coordination than he was used to.

That combination was why he didn't notice the dormant subroutine kick back into life. Without meaning to MAX had lowered his guard and the small worm The Mechanic had infested him with all those months ago became active.

As Scott climbed across their hypercar and into the other one MAX followed, watching carefully. There would not be a large window of opportunity, and he had been programmed to create maximum disruption for International Rescue so that they would leave him alone.

What better way to do that then to get rid of the Commander?

Back in the lab MAX twitched. It wasn't seen by anyone, but his new security system suddenly went into overdrive.

MiniMAX, projecting a hologram of Brains above himself, stationed himself at Scott's shoulder and reached out, sending a small electric jolt through the man.

Scott recoiled as he received a static charge from MiniMAX, shaking his arm out with a huffed laugh. Brains' holo didn't react and carried on instructing him. Scott frowned slightly at the tiny flying bot. It wasn't like Brains' gear to give static shocks, but the thought was lost in the need to concentrate. What Brains was saying he needed to do was complex…

MAX let out a dismayed beep. He'd managed to mitigate the electric charge down to the level of a static hit rather than the full-on one his counterpart was about to produce, but he had still caused a level of hurt to Scott.

He hadn't won the battle yet, though, and he shut down some basic subroutines to concentrate on ousting his intruder more fully.

The next thing MAX became aware of was Scott climbing down through the hatchway to get underneath the Hypercar. He was carrying replacement plasma plugs and MAX's concern ramped up.

Not only was Scott in danger due to the speed they were going – he whistled and beeped alongside Brains' reminder that anything dropped in the hypertube would be catastrophic – but those plasma plugs could also do some real damage! He needed to get back full control now!

As MiniMAX clipped Scott's safety line to the provided D-ring MAX fought harder against the Mechanic's subroutine. MiniMAX waited until Scott was pulling himself along under the car before turning to unclip the carabiner.

AHA! He'd found it! The worm wriggled in a redundant system, and MAX lunged at it, intent on grabbing it and hauling it out. The worm was slippery, though, and although MAX had grasped its 'tail' hard it wriggled out of his grasp.

But that nanosecond of capture had been enough to disrupt the intended action, and MiniMAX turned away from the carabiner without touching it. If MAX had lungs to breath he'd have sighed deeply. As it was he beeped in relief.

Now he knew where the worm was MAX kept up a steady chase as it crashed through his systems, setting blockades up so that he was effectively herding it.

By now Scott had arrived at the plasma plugs and had released the cover so he could start replacing them. MiniMAX helped by passing the new plugs up to him and clipping the old ones to the belt. And then Scott dropped one.

It was the longest second of MAX's life.

Of course the worm chose that particular second to fight back, and as the plug fell MiniMAX didn't move. The plug would explode on contact, killing them all. And MiniMAX hovered there and watched.

That was the worm's downfall. It had seen the opportunity for maximum damage and had paused, attention on the impending disaster. And MAX was ready. With a swipe of his arm he brought his claw down hard on the worm, destroying the invading program once and for all.

That left him just enough time to send MiniMAX after the plasma plug. And it was close, but he caught it!

MAX allowed himself a little cheer as Gordon and Virgil rescued them all safely and he trundled back up to the lounge to be there when everyone got home.

Later on, after they had all debriefed and eaten, Scott had come over to him and patted him fondly.

'Hey there, MAX, buddy. Today was a hairy one, but I'm so pleased you were right there with me. Couldn't have done it without you, MAX.'

MAX whistled and beeped at Scott. If only he knew how close it had actually been…