Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nerd Corps Entertainment and Mattel Playground Productions own the rights to Max Steel and Young Justice is owned by DC Entertainment Warner Bros. Animation.
Young Justice: Turbofied
Chapter 3: A Royal Pain
San Francisco, California, USA
When you're a superhero, you have to come to terms with the fact that you're gonna experience things that hardly make any sense. It's just something you are going to have to get used to when you've been doing it long enough. Sadly, Max hasn't been a hero long enough to really understand such things, and honestly, it was difficult to even grasp some of the weirdness he's had to deal with already.
Still, nothing could have remotely prepared him for what just happened.
"Steel, what just happened?" asked Max as he looked around the given area, seeing it as nothing more than a random alley. But still, when you go from being in your arch-enemy's base of operations to somewhere completely random, you tend to be careful about where you might be.
"Still trying to figure that out, Max," answered Steel as he hovered beside his best friend, "Any idea where we are?"
"Wait, why are you asking me? I literally have no idea," replied Max before giving the Ultralink a pointed look as his mask retracted, "Besides, shouldn't you know? You're the one with a built-in GPS or something."
"You know...," Steel started but trailed off as he didn't really have anything to counter with, "You make a very good point. Do you just like sucking the fun out of everything?"
"Given where we just were, I'd say fun wouldn't really fit," replied the hero as he folded his arms, arching an eyebrow.
"Also true," conceded the alien robot as he brought up a holographic screen, "I'm gonna try to bring up the comms while I pinpoint our location."
"Good idea, don't wanna worry mom, dad, and the others," agreed the teen as he unfolded his arms and placed one hand on his hip. As Steel made a connection to the internet to pull up a map, the Ultralink made a confused noise as he tried connecting with N-TEK communications, but only got static.
"That's weird…," commented Steel as he tried other N-TEK frequencies, but kept getting static.
"What's weird?" asked Max, tilting his head a bit as he arched an eyebrow.
"I'm not getting any N-TEK frequencies," answered Steel as he brought up a holographic screen of multiple frequencies used by his parents' organization. However, they all produced the same crackling static. This caused the teenage hero to take a step closer to the holographic screen.
"Could it be that Dread's teleporter knocked out the comms?" inquired the young man, trying to think of a good reason why communications were down.
"It's possible. It did fire several tendrils of energy into space with the purpose of teleporting Makino's remnant factions here. So a communication blackout from that amount of energy wouldn't be that much of a stretch," replied the Ultralink, glancing past the hologram before him as he secured a connection to several GPS satellites and had already begun zeroing in on his and Max's location, "And it looks like we're in luck. I found out where we are!"
"Awesome," said Max with relief, "So, where are we?"
"San Francisco, California," answered Steel as he brought up a map of the city, a blue dot representing where the both of them were, "Great news cause I can use the city as a reference point to get back to your mom, dad, and the others still at Dread's Compound. Assuming they haven't returned to the base yet."
"Knowing my mom, she won't leave until she's had every stone turned looking for us," snorted Max as he removed his hand from his hip, "In any case, no point in putting off what's gonna happen to us."
"You mean to you," corrected Steel as he shut off the holoscreen and flew in front of his best friend, "She's gonna kill you the second after she hugs and tells you how much you scared her, followed by your Uncle Ferrus with a firing squad lead by Kat and Jefferson."
"Which just leaves you for my dad," reminded Max with a smirk, causing the Ultralink to pause and think about what might happen to him, "I think he can brainstorm something for you; his best friend who let his son do something incredibly stupid and dangerous and didn't even try to stop him."
Steel's digital eye shrunk quickly as multiple scenarios played in his mind, none of them were good. Max laughed at his best friend's look of horror and terrified scream. The laughter from the human caused the Ultralink to glare at him.
"This is your fault, you numskull!" Shrieked the alien robot, pointing his arm at the teenager, "I blame you for this!"
"You're the one who followed me, so who's the bigger numskull; me or you?" countered Max, causing Steel to groan at his choice of words, prompting the teenage hero to chuckle before shaking his head, "Jokes aside, we better get going."
"Yeah, yeah," muttered Steel as he and Max got into position with the latter crossing his arms.
"Go Turbo: Flight!" Shouted Max as he uncrossed his arms and Steel's arms snapped into position.
The Ultralink slammed into the teenager's chest and both were consumed in a bright flash of energy as the Steel Suit broke apart and reformed into Flight Mode. When all the pieces came back together, the heroic duo shot into the air and took off towards the mountains.
"How long before we reach the coordinates?" asked Max once they were in the air and headed east by northeast, south of Lake Tahoe.
"At this rate, we'll be there in about 30 minutes to an hour," replied Steel, his processor instantly calculating the rate at which they are traveling and how far from San Francisco.
"No rush, right?" quipped the hero, causing the Ultralink to scoff.
"Yeah, why be in a rush to head back to the people who are likely gonna court-martial and ground us for the next 20 years," stated the alien robot.
"Don't forget the guy who's gonna use you as either a crash test dummy or a guinea pig for some experiment," added Max, earning a groan from his best friend, "In any case, keep trying N-Tek communications, see if you can pick up anyone."
"Trying different channels but still getting a whole lot of nothing," replied Steel, "I'll keep at it until I get a response, or until we arrive."
"Thanks, Steel," said the teenage hero as he and his best friend flew further inland.
As they flew, Max couldn't help but wonder why all of N-TEK's systems were down. It didn't really make much sense that all of N-TEK's systems would be down, at least for places like underwater bases, like the one Parker was the commander of. Not to mention N-TEK would no doubt have backup systems for something like this, even if it didn't, N-TEK agents and members would try contacting other bases and agents.
Max shook his head. It could just be a glitch from the teleportation Dread was trying to pull off.
"Something on your mind?" Inquired Steel, picking up on his best friend's head shake.
"Just thinking about some stuff," replied the teen, deciding to think about that later.
"Wanna talk about it?" asked the Ultralink.
"Not really," said Max as they flew across the Sacramento Valley.
"Well, if you ever change your mind, you know I'm here for you," sighed Steel, guessing that Max had already started thinking about the loss of communication with all of N-TEK. The remainder of the flight was taken in silence as the two drew closer to the coordinates.
However, as they drew closer, Max noticed something off. Not what was present, but rather what was missing from the landscape itself.
"Hey Steel?" inquired the hero as they were just a few miles away from the valley where Dread's base was located.
"Yeah, Max?" replied Steel.
"Shouldn't we have seen some N-TEK agents, jets, or anything by now?" asked Max, figuring that his dad, mom, and Uncle Ferrus would have likely called a search party and begun searching the surrounding area for any traces of them. But so far, they haven't seen a single thing. Other than a small single-engine plane, the sky has been completely clear.
"You could be onto something, Max," agreed Steel as he decided to inform his best friend about his search for any N-TEK channels, "Speaking of which, I've searched pretty much the entire internet and communication channels for any and all N-TEK frequencies."
"What'd you find?" asked the teen as the duo closed in on their destination.
"Nothing, like nothing at all, Max," answered the Ultralink, "I didn't find anything. I even tried just Google searching 'N-TEK.' All I got were some links to a parts company and a barely running entertainment company."
"So what does that mean, Steel?" asked Max as they flew over a ridge but came to a halt as they saw something truly chilling. It was the valley where Dread's base was supposed to be, but it was completely empty. Like nothing was there at all. No N-TEK agents, vehicles, destroyed Dreadnaughts, destroyed bunker. Nothing. It was like no one had ever been there.
"We might be in bigger trouble than we thought," admitted the Ultralink.
"Isn't there supposed to be a giant battlefield with several dozen squads of N-TEK agents and a destroyed evil bunker here, Steel?" asked Max, his voice a bit anxious.
"There is supposed to be, but this is the place, Max," said Steel as the duo flew down to the ground to look around. Getting close to the ground, Steel unlinked from Max's chest and flew around, scanning the area.
"Is there a chance your scanners might be messed up from what happened?" Offered Max, trying to make sense of the situation, because right now, he should be being hugged by his mom followed by being scolded and grounded until he's twenty-five.
"I'll have you know my scanners are working perfectly!" Defended Steel as he spun around to glare at Max.
"I'm just saying you've had some issues in the past," assured the young adult, "Remember that time you tried accessing Extroyer's Ultralink?"
"That's… Okay, that's fair," conceited Steel as he did remember that time. Not one of his best moments, "But I'm telling you, Max. This is the spot."
"Well we're not, 'cause Uncle Ferrus isn't yelling at us and mom isn't killing me after hugging and making sure I'm alright," countered Max as he gestured around them.
"Well, I don't know what to tell you, Max," huffed Steel, "This is the only logical place for the battle to have taken place."
"Let's try Copper Canyon," suggested the hero, "Maybe we were out longer than we thought and this place was cleaned up."
"You really think N-TEK is that quick?" asked the Ultralink, looking at his best friend skeptically.
"I don't hear you offering any other ideas," pointed out the human, folding his arms.
"Fine, but I'm telling you, this is the place," sighed Steel as he hovered back over to Max and reconnected.
"Maybe it is, maybe it isn't," replied Max as he took off into the air, having stayed in Flight Mode. However, as the two tried to make sense of what was happening, neither of them was aware that their arrival hadn't gone without notice, one way more obvious than another.
Star City, California, USA
"C'mon, Dinah! Keep your hands up! You're putting me to sleep!" Barked a gruff voice that was followed by several whacks of boxing gloves into some boxing mitts.
Roughly three hundred miles north of San Francisco was a relatively newer city compared to the home of the Golden Gate Bridge, but no less as notable as The Golden City. The city had undergone many name changes over the years, starting as Fort Plymouth before having the name changed to Arcata for a time. The name was eventually changed again when the premier research labs, S.T.A.R. Labs had set up shop in the small town. Almost overnight, the small town had burst into a bustling metropolis, attracting more large-name companies like Queen Industries. The city had decided to change its name once more to Starling City, then to just Star City. Since then, more than a few other interesting characters have appeared in the city, especially in response to a rise in crime. One such individual was the Green Arrow, Star City's resident hero, followed by his protege, Speedy, and lastly, Black Canary. Speaking of whom, the heroine was currently training with a lifelong friend of hers and her late mother.
Inside an old gym that had been around before Star Labs or Queen Industries had moved in, Wildcat's Gym served as a place to train and practice for the heroine. In the center of the gym was a boxing ring where an attractive young woman with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and a slender, yet toned build.
Wearing a pair of navy blue gym pants, a light blue tank top, and a pair of boxing gloves, Dinah Lance was taking on her current trainer, Ted Grant, better known as one of the founding members of the Justice Society of America, Wildcat. Even though the heavyweight boxer was getting much older, he remained just as physically fit as he was in his prime, being extremely buff wearing a black shirt and gray pants.
When Dinah's mother died, Ted stepped up to look after her like she was his own daughter. He could see a lot of her in the newest Black Canary and he was damn sure that if Dinah Drake were still around, she would be so proud to see the woman her daughter has become. Of course, that didn't mean he wouldn't bust her chops when training, as was the case when Dinah threw a left hook. The balding Ted Grant leaned back as Dinah followed up with a few quick jabs.
"Not bad, kid," mused Ted, a taunting grin appearing behind his greying beard, "Almost caught me napping. But you gotta get up mighty early to catch this cat snoozin'."
However, Dinah decided to make the retired hero eat his words as she faked out a straight right before ducking down underneath her sparring partner's right hook, and surprising Ted with a left uppercut. Her fist caught the elderly man in the chin and knocked him back where he fell against the boxing rings' ropes.
"Started my day at quarter to five," Dinah quipped, a smug grin on her face as she approached Ted, the aging man smirked as he rubbed his chin.
"Alright, I suppose you earned that one and I deserve gettin' knocked on my ass for the teasing," chuckled Ted as he stood up and took off the training gloves while Dinah removed her own, "Lord knows your mother woulda knocked a life off this cat if I tried that with her."
"Mom really was special," smiled Dinah as she and Ted exited the ring.
"She was, Dinah," nodded Wildcat as he turned to look at Dinah, "Just wish she was here to see yah."
"Yeah, I miss her," replied the blonde martial artist as she glanced down for a moment.
She was pretty young when her mother died, so she didn't remember all too much, but from the stories Wildcat told her, her mother was quite the woman. Fearless, tough as nails, and a member of the Justice Society of America, the predecessor to the Justice League: an organization of the greatest heroes on Earth, ranging from the greatest minds to the most powerful men and women to ever emerge from this small planet. They would deal with threats no single hero could and went wherever they were needed to protect the innocent and uphold international peace. Being a member herself, Dinah found that in the league, you should always expect the unexpected as life is never so simple.
As was the case when her and Wildcat's brief recall of Dinah's mother was interrupted when her phone started ringing. Both retired and active heroes glanced toward Dinah's gym bag.
"I… better answer that," said Dinah as she headed over to her stuff, hopping out of the ring and grabbing a towel that was hanging on one of the ropes.
"Could be nothing," said Ted as he grabbed a water bottle to take a swig of the cold liquid, "Could be something."
"It's Bruce," informed Dinah as she glanced over her shoulder to look at the grizzled fighter, having retrieved her phone from her bag and recognized the phone number almost immediately.
"And it could be the bat," added the retired hero with a sigh, "Man seems to pop up when you least expect him."
"He was trained to be a ninja," reminded the current Black Canary as she.
"Not really what I meant, but fair I guess," shrugged Ted as Dinah answered the call.
"So, what does the caped crusader need this time?" asked the blonde as she sat down on a bench to wipe some of the sweat off her body.
"Why assume whenever I call I need something?" asked the caller from the other end. His voice was deep and refined, somewhat of a high-class mannerism.
"Name one time when you have called and you didn't have something to tell me that's related to 'the mission,'" replied Dinah, though the conversation sounded a bit frosty, she and Bruce knew each other well enough from when they trained together under Wildcat's training. The man had come far from when he started out as a hero. Still though; Bruce didn't really have an answer for Dinah, which was all the confirmation she needed, "Thought so. In any case, what is it you need?"
"Approximately forty minutes ago, a massive energy spike was detected in San Francisco," informed the billionaire, "The cause of which is still unknown, but initial scans detected massive amounts of Tachyon energy."
"Isn't that a little outside of my jurisdiction?" inquired Black Canary, "I'm fairly sure Flash could make it there and figure out what happened before I could."
"Flash is currently dealing with the Rogues and Green Lantern is off-world for the moment," explained Bruce, making the blonde woman sigh as she knew, "I only need in-depth scans of the affected area."
"Is that all you need from me?" asked Dinah, her tone playful, having a history with Bruce.
"Everything related to mission," replied the billionaire evenly, knowing that his old training partner was baiting him. He wasn't going to fall for such a trick.
"Nice to see you've mellowed out a bit," muttered the blonde martial artist with a huff.
Being a therapist and counselor, not just as a cover and professional job, Dinah worked with the League at times to help members get past some of the harsher aspects of heroin. She knew a lot about many members of the league and what they struggled with and helped them as much as possible, but Batman was one of the few members that basically never went for help. This wasn't much of a surprise given how closed off the billionaire could be with sensitive topics. Even still, the lack of openness from Bruce could get to her sometimes. However, she knew that trying to talk to him about his trauma wouldn't improve anything.
Besides, it also wasn't the main focus at the moment.
"An improvement from what I was when I first put on the mask," replied Bruce, catching Dinah a little by surprise.
"I'm sorry, Bruce, what was that?" asked the martial artist. She did hear him, but she wanted the man to repeat what he just said.
"There's a build up-*STATIC* ener- *STATIC* -or loca-*STATIC*," warned the Cape Crusader, or attempted to, the signal had started cutting out and become garbled when he first started speaking.
"Bruce, you're cutting out," stated Dinah, turning up the volume to try and hear him a bit better, but no matter how high she changed the setting, she could barely hear him.
It was then a rumble of thunder echoed from outside the gym, followed by a massive flash and boom. The clap of thunder was so loud that it cracked a few windows in the building and rattled a few things on the table. The thunder's bang was so loud it ended up causing Ted to cover his ears while Dinah flinched from the sudden burst.
"Ted!" gasped Dinah as she rushed over to the aging man, "You okay?"
"Wishing I had you and your mama's powers right about now!" yelled Ted, holding one of his ears, "Can barely hear you over the hundred or so bells ringing in my ears!"
Dinah let out a sigh, knowing that Ted would be fine in a little while, but that loud bang could not have done his hearing any favors. Helping Ted to his feet, after falling to one knee from the sudden bang. It was then the two were startled by a loud crash, the crunch of metal, and a car alarm going off.
Without wasting a moment, the two ran to the exit. Shoving the doors open, the two stopped when they saw what it was that caused the massive crash. Outside, having landed on a parked car was an enormous vehicle. It reminded Dinah of Bruce's own car, but much more bulky, armored, and much more intimidating overall.
"I may not be up to date with the times," commented Ted as he glanced up at the sky, looking for a plane or something, "But I'm pretty sure something this big shouldn't fall out of the sky."
"Not usually," replied Dinah as she glanced at her guardian. It was then the static from her phone began to clear up and she could hear Bruce calling from the speaker.
"Di- *STATIC* Dinah are y-ou there?!" Called Bruce through the still-open phone line.
"We're here, Bruce," assured Dinah, "Though Ted's hearing might need some looking at."
"Good," said Bruce, the blonde catching the man letting out a relieved exhale, "What happened?"
"Felt like a lightning strike," she answered, glancing at the sky to see some swirling clouds that were already breaking apart, "but it may be a lot more complicated than we thought."
"Agreed, which is why I've called for an emergency meeting," stated Bruce, "Given the amount of energy detected, it should be assumed that whatever is the cause may be dangerous."
"I take it we won't be needing that in-depth scan now?" guessed the therapist, knowing that after the second burst, the billionaire would want to have a proper meeting now.
"No," confirmed Bruce.
"Right," replied Dinah as she glanced at Ted who folded his arms and gestured to the giant vehicle crushing the car, "And ask Hal or John if they can come by to pick up what apparently fell out of the sky onto Ted's car."
"I'll let them know," said Bruce as he then hung up, leaving Dinah to assume the meeting was going to happen as soon as possible. Letting out a sigh as she put her phone away, she turned to the retired hero.
"Let me guess: old Bruce is calling for a meeting about what just happened?" Inquired the old boxer.
"You know how he is," said Dinah as she addressed her godfather.
"Don't we both," snorted Ted as he unfolded his arms and came over to place a hand on her shoulder, "Now, don't be late. Have a quick shower and get cleaned up before you head out for your big meeting."
"I'll give you the highlights of what we talked about," teased Dinah as she headed into the gym, leaving Ted behind to glance at the vehicle that landed on his own. After a moment, he shrugged and followed the blonde in. If anything, this just gives him more of a reason to work on his motorcycle.
San Francisco, California, USA
2 hours later…
Max was currently sitting on the edge of one of the many buildings in the city where he and Steel initially woke up in. Having changed out of Flight Mode with the mask retracted, the young man was watching the sun begin to dip down in the distance, not saying anything. How could he? Especially after what he and Steel just discovered after going to both Copper Canyon and N-TEK's HQ, or where they thought the two were supposed to be located.
What they found was truly shocking as Copper Canyon was just a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Not the big city he and his mom moved to when he was fifteen. The same could be said for the N-TEK HQ as the mountain it was built into was completely untouched. No sign of any construction, no built-up hidden facilities, no signs anyone other than some hikers had ever been there, nothing. Like the two never even existed.
These facts were further reinforced when Steel expanded his search to everything they could think of and what they found was mind-blowing for two different reasons. One was that N-TEK, his home, and everything they knew had never existed. And the other reason is that wherever they were, heroes and villains existed. Like a lot of heroes and villains.
Suffice to say he and Steel had very different reactions to the information
"Can you believe it, Max?!" gushed Steel as he had multiple screens open, each with a different news article about a different hero or villain, "Heroes and villains! Real-live heroes and villains!"
Max hummed as he did admit, it was pretty cool, but he couldn't get his mind off of the elephant in the proverbial room. If there were heroes and villains now, where were they? Where was their family? How do they get back home?
"You alright, Max?" asked Steel, dismissing the screens and hovering over to his best friend, "You've been pretty quiet."
"We're in a different world, Steel," said Max after a moment, "Mom, Dad, Uncle Ferrus, Kat, Jefferson, Berton, everyone… They aren't here."
Steel glanced down for a moment, realizing what he almost overlooked when he found out superheroes were real where they were. They were in another world, cut off from their family, "You're worried about them, aren't you?"
"Can you blame me?" sighed Max as he sat up to look at his partner, "They're probably worried out of their minds; mom and dad. Ferrus is probably tearing Berto a new one after we told him to have Cytro take him and mom to safety."
"You didn't want to lose anyone else, Max," assured Steel, hovering a bit closer, "Your uncle, father, and mother; they would all understand why you had him do that. You also didn't know that taking out the machine would take us here."
"I know, it's just hard," replied the young man.
The Ultralink silently agreed as he glanced off for a moment before speaking up again, "So… what do we do now?"
Max sucked in some air as he ran a hand through his hair, attempting to steady his nerves. Since he and Steel first linked, the two had been through quite a lot and with the help of his uncle's training, they could figure out what to do, or have a general idea of what they should do at the moment. Despite the weird experiences they had, neither he nor Steel had ever experienced cross-dimensional travel. But if there was anything they were good at, it was adapting to change.
"Well, we need to get a little more info about where we are. We don't know how similar this world is to ours, so research might be helpful," began Max, "You are already on top of doing some research, but that's only on the surface, things will definitely go deeper."
"Good thing we know how to dig up secrets," snorted Steel as his human friend stood up.
"That's a given," shrugged Max as the two began going into more details. However, before they could go into more detail, they heard what sounded like sirens beneath them. Glancing down, the duo saw a pair of police cars racing down the street.
"Steel?" asked Max glancing at the alien robot.
"Already patched into a police scanner," assured Steel, "One of the first things I did when we got here."
"I thought you were trying to connect to N-TEK?" asked the hero, arching an eyebrow.
"It's called multitasking, dummy," explained Steel as he got the details of the situation, "Okay, it seems like a robbery is taking place."
"Anything worth noting?" Continued Max, arching an eyebrow.
"Just that the robbers in question are listed as villains," said the Ultralink, bringing up a screen to show a camera inside the jewelers where the robbery was taking place. The robbers in question were dressed up like playing cards, "'The Royal Flush Gang.'"
"Let me guess, they're based on the Poker Game hand?" Inquired Max rhetorically.
"Well duh," snorted Steel as he got some more info about each of them, "King's their leader; each member has specialized tech they use when doing their robberies, with Ace being the muscle among them."
"Good to know," nodded Max as glanced in the direction of the police cars, "Wanna ruin their day?"
"Why not?" Shrugged the Ultralink as he dismissed the hologram and flew in front of Max who crossed his arms.
"Go Turbo: Flight!" Shouted Max, uncrossing his arms and Steel slammed into his chest. A moment and a flash of light later, Max Steel had shot off into the air and toward the source of the disturbance. Turns out, the robbery wasn't hard to track as the robbers weren't exactly making an attempt to be quiet or really stealthy.
Max Steel was the first to arrive on the scene, which turned out to be a large jewelry store. Flying over the buildings was much faster than trying to weave through the streets of San Francisco. However, Max didn't mind the police stepping up to help in certain situations. But he would prefer to handle this himself, given he was still new to this place.
"Hey Steel, did the report say where the robbery was taking place?" asked Max, recalling what his best friend told him. Pausing over the building for a moment to scan the surrounding area. There were some citizens fleeing from the jewelry store, so Max didn't have to worry about them getting caught up in the coming fight.
"Yep, said that they just broke into a jeweler that is supposedly holding millions of dollars of uncut diamonds," stated the Ultralink, "Makes more sense why they would want to hit this place."
"Agreed," shrugged Max as he flew down, his body flashing with light as he entered Base Mode, "So, how do you wanna handle this?"
"Haven't used Spike Mode in a while," suggested Steel, "Besides, might be a good idea to sneak up and get an idea of how they do things."
"It's worth a shot," said the teenage hero, "Go Turbo: Spike!"
Max's entire body lit up, the Steel Suit breaking up into pieces before reforming, making the hero a bit taller and far more slender. The suit was also much darker, with black and gray plating. Gauntlets formed on his arms, acting as the housing for his retractable spiked whips. Massive blue spikes also sprouted out of his arms, starting at his forearm with another larger spike coming up before a third largest spike came out from his elbow. Massive spikes came up out of his shoulders and out of his back with more spikes sprouting from his legs going all the way down to his ankles.
With his chosen armor, Max Steel stealthily entered the building, ready to take on his first gang of villains in this world.
A loud crunch of metal bending echoed through the jewelry store as Ace, the Royal Flush Gang's robotic muscle tore the vault door off its hinges. The metal bolts that were meant to keep the entire door secure to the rest of the safe stood no chance against such strength. After ripping open the entrance to their payday, Ace hurled the door behind him with King, Queen, Jack, and 10 standing behind the robot. The large metal door clattered to the ground with a loud crash, breaking the floor in the process.
"That's what I call a 'safe cracker,'" quipped Jack smugly as he, King, and the other members of the Royal Flush Gang entered the vault.
Quickly getting to work as they opened multiple other boxes, pouring the diamonds they collected into large sacks. 10 grabbed a tray of diamonds and poured them into the sack, hundreds of little glittering rocks tumbled into the gangs' bags.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" demanded King as he stopped 10, the woman looking back at her leader for a second, confused, "We don't want industrial diamonds."
"But boss-," spoke up 10, not sure why it would make a difference. Granted, the difference being industrial diamonds can be made synthetically and in greater quantities while natural diamonds can fetch a higher price for being larger and far purer.
"Listen to the King, Ten," interrupted Queen as she approached a cart and took out a playing card. Looking down at the cart, she swung the playing card like a knife at the metal container. A second later, the cart broke open, causing a few diamonds to fall out. Reaching down, the Queen picked up a very large diamond, about the size of a golf ball, "Quality over quantity."
With that little lesson over, the Gang resumed stealing as many diamonds as they could carry. Or rather, as many diamonds as Ace and their hover cards could carry. Ten emptied more boxes, as did the Queen, Ace, and even the King got to work. The only one not working on cleaning out the vault was Jack, who was pacing out in front of the vault entrance. Something the King picked up on.
"Jack, we're on a timetable," reminded the villainous robber, "What are you doing out there?"
"Keeping watch," replied Jack evenly as he used his cybernetic eye to scan the outside area.
Walking a bit further out, Jack passed by more diamonds on display, knowing that the ones on display weren't worth as much as the ones in the back. As he walked further in the display area, Max Steel was hiding up above nearly the skylight, behind a tapestry, using his spikes to keep him anchored to the wall. Internally, the hero was hoping the light wouldn't give him away too much.
"Ugh, he looks like an anorexic albino Kano pretending to be a king's jester," critiqued Steel, causing Max to roll his eyes, but couldn't help but make a joke of his own.
"I'd say he looks more like a terminator trying to pass itself off as a court fool in Buckingham palace," quipped Max in a whisper, causing Steel to snicker.
It was then Jack looked up right in their direction, making Max freeze in place, and lower his voice even more if that was even possible.
"Can he see us?" asked Max.
"I don't think he can see us," replied Steel, though his tone gave away that he wasn't entirely sure himself.
"I can see you," said Jack, his right eye lighting up with a red glow before a laser shot out right at Max Steel. Fortunately, Max was able to leap away from his cover right as the laser struck the wall, burning through the tapestry while causing a pretty large explosion in the process and a large cloud of dust
"He can see us!" squawked Max as he tumbled through the air before firing one of his whips from his arm and using the spiked end to pierce the ceiling.
Using the momentum from jumping off the previously undestroyed wall, Max swung down right at Jack, using the dust as cover. Landing in front of Jack, Max Steel sprung over the Royal Flush Gang's ranged member, grabbed his shoulders, and hurled him back toward the vault. As Jack hit the floor and slid across the ground, Queen stepped aside and eyed their uninvited guest.
Reaching her belt, she drew her deck of razor-sharp throwing cards, "Pick a card, any card!" she announced before hurling the cards at Max Steel.
The Tachyon-generating hero crossed his arms and shielded himself as the cards struck the Steel Suit. However, to Queen's displeasure, her cards merely bounced off the hero. Max then lowered his arms and tilted his head, "Seriously?"
"After our encounter with that magic sword, I tweaked the armor so that sharp stuff isn't something to worry about anymore," informed Steel, "But razor-sharp playing cards are still pretty cool."
"How about something with more of a kick then?" Offered 10 as she flanked Max, both her arms raised and aimed at Max.
Her hands began glowing purple as energy formed around them. Reacting quickly, Max Steel swung out one of his whips which wrapped around her left leg, the cable going behind her right. Yanking hard on it, the hero pulled 10's legs out from under her, causing the villainess to fall and accidentally fire at the ceiling, destroying more of the store and debris to fall. 10 scrambled out of the way as a particularly big chunk nearly landed on top of her. Some chunks did crush a few display cases, causing the class cases to shatter and send large shards all over the room.
Getting back in the fight, Jack had his focus locked onto Max Steel, his cybernetic eye charging up once more as he fired another laser at the hero. Max expertly dodged it, retracting his whip, and flipped over another beam fired at him. Snatching a mirrored shard of glass, Max used the piece as a sort of shield from Jack's laser.
"Nasty case of pinkeye you got there," noted Max tauntingly.
"Not as bad as you might think," stated the villainous bank robber, marching towards the hero, his beam still going, causing the mirror to start heating up, "But if I were you, I'd be more worried about myself. Because I can do this all day."
"He's not lying, Max," cautioned Steel, having taken a quick scan of Jack's laser eye, "That laser eye has a pretty long battery life."
As Max kept the shard up to defend himself from Jack's laser, King and Ace had finished emptying out the vault, their bags all full of stolen diamonds.
"Forget it, Jack," said King, as he grabbed a sack and got ready to board his hovercard, "Everybody, take what you can and get out."
"Right," said Jack as he kept his focus on Max, "As soon as I finish off our little pest problem."
"You know, that's the thing with pests, Jack," said Max, gripping the mirror with one hand as he reached to one of his spikes with the other and pulled it out, "They aren't as easy to take out as you might think."
He then hurled the shard into the beam, the T.U.R.B.O. Spike shard caused the beam to refract out, sending multiple smaller beams to go everywhere. The beams struck more areas of the building, blowing out more pieces of debris, several chunks were sent flying toward Jack who dove out of the way.
"And you never know if there is only one," concluded Max as he crushed his arms over his chest, "Go Turbo: Clone!"
Uncrossing his arms, Spike Mode lit up brightly, causing all the villains to shield their eyes from the intensity of the flash. After a moment, the flash died down, before revealing that the mode hadn't really changed, other than a slight color scheme alteration.
"Might want to do your math once more, dear," taunted Queen as she drew more throwing cards and threw them at Max, however, to her shock and the shock of the Royal Flush Gang, Max Steel split in two.
"You sure about that?" quipped Max Steel as he got into a fighting stance.
"We don't have time for this," frowned King as he glanced toward Ace and nodded.
The robotic bruiser went over and grabbed the previously torn-off vault door and lifted it over his head. He hurled the entire door right at both Max's with a grunt. However, like before, another T.U.R.B.O. Clone of Max Steel appeared; the same happened for the second clone, resulting in four clones of Max Steel.
"Then you better make time," said one of the Max Steel clones, which immediately cloned again after 10 took a potshot at him, resulting in there being 5 Max Steels to face the five members of the Royal Flush Gang.
Gritting his teeth, King turned to the members of the Royal Flush Gang, "Scatter!" He barked, resulting in all the members breaking off in different directions.
Each Max Steel clone gave chase, using their whips to keep up with their respective target, leaving the Original Max Steel to deal with Ace who he was currently facing off against.
"Okay then, big guy, just you and me," said Max as he got ready to fight against the Royal Flush Gang's Muscle.
"He's just an android, Max," reminded Steel, "Not really known for being chatty."
"That sounds a bit sketchy coming from you, Steel," replied Max.
"I'm just saying-"
"Incoming!" cut off the hero, noticing their friend was standing around anymore.
The large robot had started charging towards Max, with the hero also sprinting towards it. The robot raised both his arms and brought them down, but missed the T.U.R.B.O. Charged hero, who flipped over the robot while throwing two spikes at its feet. This caused Ace to fall to the ground while Max was still in the air. Flipping around in the air above Ace, Max fired both whips down at the ground on either side of the robot, letting the hero yank himself back down and use both of his heels to smash Ace's face into the ground.
Hopping off Ace, Max spun around and kicked the robot across the face, knocking it back up onto its feet. Pressing his advantage, Max ran up and punched Ace in the center of its face. The robot responded by swinging its arms at the hero, but couldn't hit him thanks to Spike Modes' agility and flexibility. The Royal Flush Gang's muscle then tried smashing the ground and ripping chunks out and threw them at Max Steel.
"Oh come on," goaded the teenager, dodging and using his whips to break apart the chunks of rock thrown at him, "This is just getting sad."
It was then, Ace grabbed a bigger chunk and threw it at Max. The hero held his ground as his whips retracted. Pulling back his right hand, he made a fist that started glowing bright blue. As the chunk got closer, he threw out his fist and struck the large chunk, a flash of energy went through the boulder as it shattered from the force of the blow. However, what Max or Steel didn't count on was Ace using the boulder as a distraction to tackle Max in a bear hug.
"Shouldn't have been cocky!" wheezed out Max as Ace began to try to crush him.
"Well, jokes on him," said Steel as his reading showed that Ace's hardware was not handling the T.U.R.B.O. Energy well at all.
And it showed quite obviously, as Ace's arms began to spark furiously as the Android's expression went from sadistic glee to shocked regret as his systems began to overload. A second later, Ace's arms exploded, freeing Max from the robot's arms. All that was left of Ace's arms were stumps. The android let out a cry as it stumbled back.
"I feel kinda bad, Steel," admitted Max, seeing the robot flail about without any arms, "Wanna put him out of his misery?"
"May as well," sighed Steel as Max sent both spiked whips right at Ace, the tips piercing into Ace's chest.
Yanking hard on it, Max pulled the robot in while at the same time, jumping up into the air. As soon as the robot got close, the hero kicked out both his feet, striking Ace right in the chest with enough force to shatter the robot into pieces. As the pieces came apart, Max looked around to see the other Spike Clones returning, each having taken care of the remaining Royal Flush Gang Members.
"Not bad for our first robbery with super villains here, huh Steel?" commented Max as the clones tied up the Royal Flush Gang members together with a cable.
"Oh please," said Steel, the human didn't need to see the Ultralink to know he was rolling his eye, "These guys are bank robbers. C-Listers at best."
Max couldn't help but let out a huff as the clones finished tying up the members of the Royal Flush Gang before each one vanished in a puff of T.U.R.B.O. Energy with Max also flashing out of Spike Mode and back into Base Mode.
"Well, either way, for the first time here, I say it went pretty well for us," reaffirmed Max, folding his arms in satisfaction.
"I would say so as well."
Max spun around to see something he thought he would only get to in comics, tv shows, or movies. Descending from the air was a man wearing a red and blue outfit, with a red cape, red trunks, a gold belt, and red boots. He was caucasian, quite tall, and had vivid blue eyes and short black hair that curled over his forehead. With him were several other people.
The second person was a woman that was pretty tall and fair-skinned with straight waist-length black hair, blue eyes, and broad shoulders. She was very attractive in appearance, sporting a slender and athletic frame with a well-toned yet muscular build.
She also wore a strapless red bustier held up by a brace of gold resembling two W's. Along with a large golden belt and blue briefs with five white stars on them. She wears red boots with a white stripe on the front side. On her arms were a pair of silver bracelets around her wrists, red star earrings, and a golden diadem with a red star on her forehead. On her belt was a golden lasso.
On the other side of the man who arrived first was another man, caucasian with an athletic build. His outfit differed quite a bit from the woman's, being the torso, shoulders, and boots are green with a white and green symbol on his chest that looked vaguely like a lantern. While the legs, arms, and armpits are black. He also wore a green domino mask and had white gloves on his hands with a green glowing ring on his right hand.
Following the three was another man, who didn't really look human. The individual was quite tall, around the same height as the woman with green skin. He's completely bald with his face being oddly proportioned, with heavy brows, thick lips, and red eyes. His outfit was primarily black, with red accents, and a large red belt and x-shaped straps across his chest. He also had a blue cape that was fastened by gold clips.
On the ground were two men, one wore a dark gray costume with a bat symbol spread over the chest, black trunks, gloves that had spikes on the outside, boots, and a black cape with a unique pattern at the end. He also wore a black cowl with little ears and a yellow utility belt.
While the other was also caucasian wearing a full-body suit that is all red with two small yellow lightning bolts across the waist and wrists. He had a yellow lightning bolt on the center of his chest over a white circle. There were also little lightning bolts on his boots.
Overall, these individuals all but screamed 'superheroes.'
"If you don't mind us asking, but we have a few things we'd like to ask you," greeted the man kindly with a smile.
While Max was left in stunned silence, Steel on the other hand was having quite the opposite experience.
"Oh… My… Gosh!"
To Be Continued…
I wanna start by apologizing if the quality of the chapter dipped a little. Had a little bit of burnout and didn't write for a really long time. I hope you can all forgive me for taking so long to update the story. A lot of you seem to like it and I want to continue the story.
In any case, now we are finished with Chapter 3, Max and Steel discovered they are in an alternate universe, they faced the Royal Flush Gang, though I will come clean that I decided to cut the scene down a bit. It would get a bit tricky jumping between each member of the Gang. But I hope you can forgive me for cutting the fight a bit short. I decided to compensate by making the fight between Max and Ace a bit more interesting before introducing Max and Steel to the League. Yes, Steel will go full Fanboy mode next chapter, I guarantee it. This chapter may have been a bit shorter than the previous one, I apologize for that, but I plan to make up for it in chapter 5 when we get to the first episode of Young Justice. Chapter 4 will just be establishing Max in the YJ universe, catching up with things, etc.
Another thing I wanted to say is in regards to what I said I would do when providing links to images or websites. I decided to instead create a discord channel where I would post the images instead. Much easier and FanFiction won't punish me anymore for trying to include the beginning and end of web addresses.
I'll provide a link to the discord channel, but keep in mind the channel is still being set up, so don't hate me too much for the Discord looking really bad.
discord . gg / k8vvJ4jK
On a side note, I feel like this won't be too much of a surprise, but for the most part, many of Max's new enemies will be primarily female, mainly because the enemies Max has are all guys, so I feel like this will balance things out a bit. While we're on the topic of new female friends, some of you, who may be degenerates like myself, may know I've been posting a lot to the Outtakes story. Should probably change the name as it is less about outtakes and more about shameless smut. You may notice I've been pairing Max with several female characters and I will say that what happens in Outtakes has no impact on the main story, but I may include them if it plays a part in the plot of the main story, or if it is in character for certain villainesses or characters to take a shine to Max Steel.
That being said, I will list the heroines and villainesses with who I plan to have some sort of relationship with Max. Starting from good/heroic, to antihero/gray area, evil/sinister, and then to just messed up.
Ice (Tora Olafsdotter), Fire (Beatrix da Costa), Black Canary (Dinah Lance), Artemis (Artemis Crock), Wonder Woman (Diana Prince), Troia (Donna Troy), Bekka, Cheshire (Jade Nguyen), Volcana (Claire Selton), Killer Frost (Crystal Frost), Lady Shiva (Sandra Wu-San), Queen Bee, Big Barda, Lashina, Gilotina, Grail, and possible others who Max may have a one-off with.
I would like to stress, this list may change and it may be a while before we get to characters like Grail or the Furies, so I apologize if it might take me a long time in the main story. If you want to see Max get it on with Darkseid's daughter, go read the Outtakes which I may change the name of. Also, not all the women mentioned above will have a sexual relationship with Max; like Black Canary will be a sort of surrogate/godmother/aunt for Max when he first arrives, Wonder Woman will be a mentor for Max to improve his combat prowess with Canary; Artemis will be like a little sister. So to reiterate, not all women in DC will be in a sexual relationship with Max, just wanted to stress that point.
Another thing I would like to add is that if you have been paying attention to my Outtakes Story, you would know I recently made a bunch of MK/Injustice style intro banter Max and several characters. Along with a few easter eggs like references to possible stories, an easter egg related to Spawn, and some other stuff, you might have noticed that I gave Skarlet the most intros out of all present. That was intentional as I do have a sort of special idea I wanted to try out. No doubt many of you know of Teen Titans Go, and how they did a short crossover of Young Justice with Go for one episode? I was thinking of incorporating that into the story, taking place between the five-year gap between Seasons 1 and 2, and before the Young Justice Video Game (I consider that game canon and it honestly is). My idea was to have Max and Steel end up in the universe of Mortal Kombat during the events of the Mortal Kombat tournament. I literally plan to have Max and Steel drop into the tournament. So while the Team is in Go, Max, and Steel will be in a death tournament. This is where he'll meet Skarlet who will basically become a sort of yandere for Max after getting a taste of his blood and the T.U.R.B.O. Energy Max generates. I call Skarlet a yandere because she honestly is and because of a specific fanart I found. I'll add a link to it at the end of this. Now, I won't say Max may get some lovers in MK, but I won't confirm it either.
In any case, that's everything I wanted to say. Sorry it was so much, I hope it was worth the wait and I hope to return to the story soon with the next chapter coming up.
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