Chapter 18

(Third Person P.O.V.)

On a snowy mountain in Aspen Colorado, Pete and Yuuko were snowboarding, racing each other down the mountain as Pete said "Eat my powder Kinoshita!" loudly and clearly as he happily road down the mountain with a matching smile on his face, as Yuuko caught up to him and then passed him and replied, "Slow traffic keep right!" loudly, clearly and happily with a matching smile on her face as Pete then caught up to her and they both continued to ride their snowboards down the mountain as Pete rode next to Yuuko and said, "Man I can't believe Yoshii is missing this." slightly disappointed that his best friend wasn't there with them as Yuuko quickly responded by saying, "His final got moved but his flight should be getting in any minute now." reassuringly, her facial expression matching her tone of voice.

Just then, Akihisa while still in his Max Steel persona was flying over in Hawk and speaking to Roberto over the communicator who then asked, "Hey Hombre, getting psyched?" curiously as Max replied, "Closing in on Aspen as we speak, also why are you still online, shouldn't you and Kubo both be half way to Columbia by now?" curiously, to which Roberto replied, "Got a few last minute details to detail, don't worry, Kubo and I will fly out tomorrow." sheepishly, to which Max responded, "You and Kubo both had better Roberto, Mairot ordered this vacation for all of Team Steel." happily, to which Roberto responded, "That's N-Tek's employee policy, we work hard, we play hard." excitedly, to which Max then proclaimed, "By the way thanks for scoring me, Yuuko and Pete the cabin, Yuuko and Pete especially couldn't have swung the air fair without the free roof." gladly as he used zoom in vision ability in his eyes provided by his Max Probes in his body, to which Roberto replied, "Hey you wouldn't go without them." obviously, to which Max then said, "And speaking of the musketeers, attention flight crew prepare for landing, and, stealth mode." jokingly as he turned Hawk invisible and flew close by to them, making a rather loud noise as a result which startled them both, causing Yuuko to slow down and stop while Pete continued to ride his Snowboard but wasn't looking in front of him, to which Yuuko then fearfully shouted, "Pete!" before he fell off the nearby cliff side as Max who was still in Hawk saw this and also fearfully exclaimed, "Pete!"

Max then quickly landed Hawk and kept its stealth mode on, he then turned back into Akihisa and went to go help Yuuko save Pete, who was currently hanging from a branch on the side of the cliff that his snowboard got caught on as Pete said, "Help me!" fearfully as he dangled, Yuuko then reached for him and said, "Pete, quickly grab my hand!" as Pete then reached for and grabbed the branch with his hand as his snowboard fell, Akihisa then rushed over and exclaimed, "Hold on, I'm coming!" as he and Yuuko grabbed Pete's arm and Akihisa proclaimed, "We'll pull together!" as they pulled Pete up as Pete painfully exclaimed, "My arm." as they pulled him up.

As Pete stood back up he said, "Oh man, I lost my board." to which Yuuko replied, "Or in other words..." sarcastically, to which Pete replied, "Thanks, I meant to say thanks." still shocked and a bit embarrassed as he looked at both Akihisa and Yuuko to which Yuuko then exclaimed, "Not the best way to start a vacation." to which Akihisa replied, "No its a good omen, we just filled our bad luck quota for the whole trip." trying to cheer up his long time best friend and his girlfriend both while unbeknownst to them, Psycho was spying on and looking at them from some nearby trees but still completely unseen.

Meanwhile at the cabin, Akihisa and Yuuko were both sitting on the couch in the living room of said cabin enjoying being together and admiring how luxurious the cabin they were staying in was.

"I still can't believe that this is the cabin we're staying in." Akihisa proclaimed still in astonishment as Yuuko then chimed in saying, "Yep it looks like Roberto has a talent for understatement. I staked out the loft upstairs, you and Pete can fight over the room with the big screen." humorously as she looked Akihisa in the eyes who did the same and replied, "TV's not a big priority on this trip," casually as Yuuko got closer to him and replied, "I missed you too and I'm not letting you out of my sight." lovingly as she was about to give Akihisa a kiss when they were interrupted by the sound of Pete outside shouting, "Score, hey guys, we have got to get back out there." excitedly as Akihisa and Yuuko came out and looked at him from up on the cabin balcony as Akihisa exclaimed, "Hey Costas, haven't you had enough for one day?" curiously and a little annoyed, to which Pete responded saying, "I'm not talking about snowboards, I'm talking about snowmobiles." excitedly as he opened a garage door to reveal three snowmobiles inside, as Akihisa and Yuuko just looked at each other and smiled.

The three of them all then got on and began riding their snowmobiles throw the snowy trail and decided to have a little race with each other as Pete said, "Last on to the top does the dishes!" loudly and gleefully as Yuuko replied, "I'm in!" and Akihisa replied, "You're on!" both loudly and excitedly as Akihisa managed to pass both Yuuko and Pete and was now in the lead, but he then looked and saw what looked like another person riding a snowmobile close by, he then used his the zoom function in his Max Probe enhanced eyes again to see that it was Psycho, Akihisa then contacts Roberto on his communicator and says, "Roberto, are you still online?" to which Roberto responded, "Kubo and I were both half way out the door hombre, what's up?" curiously to which Akihisa quickly replied, "Smiley is in Aspen." dejectedly as Roberto then responded, "Max you've got Smiley on the brain." wittily as Akihisa responded, "Turn on your monitor, I have have in my sights." Roberto did as Max told him and saw what Max was seeing and then quickly said, "It's Psycho!" completely shocked and surprised, to which Akihisa then replied, "Thanks for the bulletin, but why Aspen, why is he here?!" curiously, to which Roberto got some information from Kubo who was right next to him and exclaimed, "Check it, the U.S. Vice President is on the slopes!" shocked and worried to which Akihisa then proclaimed, "I'm taking him down! Roberto, Kubo both of you contact Yuuko on the communicator, tell her I need her to lose Pete so she can help me with this!" seriously as Kubo then chimed in over the communicator and said, "Already on it." seriously.

Just then Kubo had already done as Akihisa told him and Roberto to do and contacted Yuuko on her communicator and told her what was going on, she then used a hologram device she got from N-Tek to project a hologram of Akihisa on his snowmobile going a different direction allowing the real Akihisa to follow and go after Psycho, she then told Pete to go on ahead and that she needed to stop and take care of a little girl problem she was having, pulling out a compact mirror from her bag, to which Pete just shrugged and not knowing what to say and just went in the same direction as the Akihisa hologram.

With Pete now gone Yuuko then went and followed Akihisa was still in hot pursuit of Psycho, Yuuko quickly then caught up to Akihisa who had already turned back into max Steel and the two of them were both now following Psycho, as Roberto then chimed in over the communicator saying, maybe you guys should wait for backup." nervously to which Max then replied, "Not exactly the Max Steel way, and besides we can't risk letting Smiley slither away." seriously, as he and Yuuko continued to pursue Psycho and Roberto then asked, "Are you guys sure you want to do this alone just the two of you, to which Yuuko responded, saying, "It's not just the two of us, we also have both you and Kubo." reassuringly, but just as she said that they lost Psycho which made Max say, "Dammit, we lost him, he completely vanished!" clearly upset over losing Psycho, to which Roberto then chimed in saying, "Maybe I can track him." to which Max immediately responded, "Since when?!" to which Roberto replied, "Psycho's bionic limbs give off a specific energy signature, I locked on during the chase and now... There's an ice cave thirty meters to your right, Psycho went in there." calmly and casually.

Max and Yuuko both then road up to the cave as Max then announced, "Dude we are not worthy." as he and Yuuko got off of their snowmobiles and removed their helmets before entering the cave as Akihisa activated stealth mode from his Bio-Link and Yuuko doing the same with her suit, making them both invisible, Roberto then spoke, "Max, Yuuko..." to which Yuuko chimed in, saying "We're professionals Roberto and Kubo, we can handle this." calmly and collectively as both Max and Yuuko were completely unaware that who they were speaking to over their communicators were not Roberto and Kubo but John Dread, Psycho's boss and the leader of the terrorist group of the same name who was using a voice changer to sound like both Roberto and Kubo as both Max and Yuuko went deeper into the cave, as Max then proclaimed, "Hey Roberto, this place is huge, to which John Dread using the voice changer to sound like both Roberto and Kubo over the communicator then told Max and Yuuko, "There should be a tunnel off to your left." to which Yuuko then said, "check, also how do you know?" curiously to which John Dread using the voice changer replied, Psycho's energy signature is coming from that direction." calmly and casually, to which max responded, "Huh, as usual you rule bro." to which John Dread using the voice changer replied, "Just doing my job, hombre."

John Dread then turned off the communicator and voice changer and video contacted Psycho on a monitor telling him that they have successfully intercepted Max and Yuuko's communication frequency and instructed him to capture the both of them alive and in one piece, to which Psycho simply responded, "Yes sir, understood." before John Dread turned off the video monitor and contacted a pair of his henchmen and told them to begin test number one and to retrieve something called the infinity ice to which they did and he told them to be careful, they then tested it by dropping a drop of the blue glowing liquid in the vile into a small pool of water full of fish, freezing it completely, the test was a success, John Dread then told his men that the test was a success and Steel was wrapped up and to pack their bags and begin with test number two.

To be continued.