Chapter 20

(Third Person P.O.V.)

Akihisa as Max Steel was currently in one of the Great Pyramids of Egypt together with Yuuko investigating suspicious energy readings, and were attacked by two statues and a giant mummy that they were told about by one of the locals earlier when they met with the lead archeologist for the excavation, before heading down into the Pyramid, but they managed to escape as Max felt himself getting weaker with every passing minute.

Yuuko looked at Max and proclaimed, "Well now, that was unexpected, I never thought we'd encounter two Egyptian gods those being Anubis and the other being Ammit, and also a giant mummy, did you?" concerned with a matching facial expression.

Our nanobot-powered hero immediately respawned by saying, "No I didn't, also one problem with what you just said babe, and that is that those weren't the real Egyptian gods Anubis and Ammit and that was no giant mummy, when I hit the one that looks like Ammit, it gave off a clanking sound like as if I was punching something made of metal, meaning that those were either robots or mech suits designed to look like statues and a giant mummy." calmly and collectively with a matching facial expression.

Yuuko's response was to say, "Yeah and I noticed that you are losing strength and getting weaker, which means, that dart that you got shot with earlier must have had something to disable if not destroy your Max probes and drain the Transphasic energy from your body, slowly but surely weakening you." calmly and collectively but still slightly worried with a matching facial expression, at which point both Roberto and Kubo chimed in on the communicator with Roberto saying, "She's right hermano, Kubo just ran a scan on you and you're reading completely normal, as in you're reading completely normal human and not superhuman like you should maybe you should head come back to behemoth so Roberto and I can fix whatever is wrong with you." concerned with a matching facial expression over the communicator.

Sadly being a hero took over as Max's response was to say, "Sure, after we find the good doctor first." Yuuko then retorted, "Yeah, assuming that she isn't part of and in on whatever is going on here." calmly, logically, and collectively as Max turned and looked at her and nodded silently in agreement with her.

Max and Yuuko both then pulled out their grapple guns and fired their grapple hook lines to try and climb back up from where they fell in, only for two of the three mechs from earlier the one that looks like Anubis and the one that looks like Ammit to come in through a secret automatic sliding door and for the Anubis mech to knock both Max and Yuuko off of the wall as Max then got up and said, "I'm getting tired of this! Going Turbo!" angrily as he went turbo only for Kubo to then chime in on the communicator, saying, "No Max, don't, something is attacking the Max probes in your body!" before the communication link was lost as Roberto and Kubo both only got a loud high pitched beep that lasted for a minute before stopping as Roberto then exclaimed, "Max do read us?! Max?!" over the communicator, worried with a matching facial expression that Kubo shared as they both turned and looked at each other.

Now Max then knocked the Anubis mech off of its feet and then knocked over the Ammit mech with a jumping front snap kick to its head, as Max and Yuuko both then ran down the nearest corridor way out and encountered the giant mummy mech which knocked Max over before grabbing, shaking and throwing him into the wall as Yuuko went to Max's side to help him, the Anubis mech had caught up to them and tried to hit Yuuko with its open palm but she dodged it and caused it to miss and hit the wall as she then exclaimed, "Come on dog boy! Is that the best you can do?!" which caused the Anubis mech to try to kick her only for Yuuko to dodge and make it miss again, smashing a big hole in the wall that she and Max could use to get away before kicking the Anubis mech with a back spinning heel kick, knocking it over.

Just then the Ammit mech charged at both Max and Yuuko as the two of them immediately jumped out of the way into and through the hole in the wall made by the Anubis mech as Max then quipped, "And this change in decor?" as Yuuko instantly stated, "Means that I was right! It looks like whoever is behind whatever is really going on decided to take a page of the playbook of all of the bad guys from Scooby Doo." calmly and collectively as she walked a little bit ahead as Max then proclaimed, "You two guys both saw and heard, Yuuko and I are on the same page, which just proves why I love her." over the communicator but Max only got silence as he tried again, "Roberto? Kubo? Guys?" but still only got radio silence, but just then the three mechs were starting to make bigger holes in the wall, which was not a good sign, Max and Yuuko then began to run away as Max then exclaimed, "I got zip on the Bio-link!" as he and Yuuko continued to run while the Ammit and Anubis mechs gave chase to them as the ran into a nearby automatic opening metal door and stopped as they found themselves in a control room to see Dragonelle standing before them as she proclaimed, " You're Welcome." to both Max and Yuuko.

Yuuko then retorted, "Doctor Miyorkis I presume." with an annoyed frown on her face as Dragonelle took a bow for her convincing performance before walking up to Max and saying, "Hello Max, I trust you're feeling, unfit, that nip you felt earlier was an injection of experimental Dread Probes, even now their multiplying, devouring the Max Probes in your body. But on to happier topics, Operation Chaos Strike, the Middle East has always teetered on the brink, our missiles explode, countries blame each other..." She walked back up to where all of her subordinates were on their computer control panels.

Yuuko then interjected, saying, "And Dread's influence increases." unimpressed and unsurprised with a matching facial expression as Max interjected with, "And when we don't report back, N-Tek will send in the cavalry." seriously with a matching facial expression Dragonelle quickly replied, "Oh dear, then I'd better hurry. Commence countdown now!" to one of her subordinate henchmen, who immediately responded, "Yes mistress. Launch sequence initiated, ten minutes and counting." obediently a countdown timer appeared on the monitor screens counting down the time until the missile launch.

Dragonelle then smiled and spoke, "The Dread Probes are making spectacular progress, of course it's possible that once they've neutralized all of your Max Probes they'll move on to attack your organic systems, but Mr. Dread felt that was an acceptable risk, don't you agree, Max?"
Max then bitterly retorted with a, "Anything for science!" angrily and annoyed with both of his fists clenched and with a matching facial expression as just then alarms were going off for an intruder alert, showing both Roberto and Kubo on one of the screens as they cautiously walked through the passage ways, as Dragonelle turned to both Max and Yuuko and inquired, "Mr. Kubo and Doctor Martinez, I presume? Fetch!" before giving the order to the henchman operating the giant mummy mech, who then walked off to carry out the order Dragonelle had given him as Max then dropped to his knees from weakness from the Dread Probes in his body as Yuuko exclaimed, "Max!" concerned with a matching facial expression, as Dragonelle then ordered the other two henchmen in the Anubis and Ammit mechs respectively, "Take Mr. Steel to the med lab, we'll want to document his final minutes." coldly, as Yuuko retorted, "I want to stay with him!" objectively as Dragonelle replied, "Isn't that sweet, throw her in the brig on your way." coldly with a matching facial expression.

Meanwhile, Roberto and Kubo together were walking through one of the passageways and looked down at their feet and saw a strange stone in the floor with some Egyptian hieroglyphs on it, the two of them then backed up into something and turned around to see the giant mummy mech about to reach for them.

Now, back with Max and Yuuko who were being taken away by the two henchmen in the Anubis and Ammit mechs down a hallway when Max suddenly dropped to his knees again, causing enough of a distraction for Yuuko to use her shoulder to knock the Anubis mech over as Max quickly got back up to his feet proclaiming, "Come on ugly, I got an English teacher scarier than you!" to the Ammit mech tauntingly with a matching facial expression as the Ammit mech charged at full speed at Max who quickly jumped over it, causing it to run into the metal wall head first as Max exclaimed, "And that my dear Yuuko is what we call using an opponent's strength against them." proudly with a matching facial expression as Yuuko applauded him.

They couldn't pause, as they both then had to make a break for it the two mechs got back up on their feet and gave chase to Max and Yuuko, Yuuko asked, "Max how are you feeling?" curiously with a matching facial expression as Max replied, "Human, and I hate it!" as just then the giant mummy mech smashed through the door and got in front of Max and Yuuko and fought off the other two mechs throwing two discs at them which stuck to and shocked with an electric discharge causing the other two mechs to go down as the giant mummy mech turned around and its chest opened revealing both Kubo and Roberto in the cockpit, the two of them then jumped out and down.

Shocked, Max then stated, "You two maniacs!" jokingly with a matching facial expression as Roberto retorted, "Hey all for one and for all right." they all turned and looked at the other two mechs to see they had opened and revealed the two now still stunned and semi-conscious henchmen exiting out of them as Kubo chimed in saying, "The affects of those shock discs are temporary so you'd better drink this fast." as he handed Max a vile with a green liquid in it as Max stated, "I'm betting that's not warm milk." sarcastically as Roberto immediately responded, "It's untainted Max Probes in suspension fluid, pure poison to the rest of us, but it should be able to fight off whatever is watering down your system." informatively with a matching facial expression as Max drank it before remarking, "I know that's supposed to help, but that tastes nasty!" disgusted with a matching facial expression.

Roberto and Kubo both got back in the cockpit of the giant mummy mech suit, as Yuuko got into the Anubis mech cockpit and Max got into the Ammit cockpit and made their way back to the control room where Dragonelle was as the missiles were getting ready to be launched as the timer counted down to now having only five minutes and counting, once the three mechs entered through the automatic sliding door Dragonelle turned around and inquired, "Where is Mr. Kubo and Doctor Martinez?!" to which they first looked at each other before charging in and attacking as Dragonelle shouted an order of, "STOP THEM!' to the rest of her men who tried but were all knocked back and unconscious by Max, Yuuko, Kubo and Roberto in their respective mechs as Roberto and Kubo in the giant mummy mech tried to go after Dragonelle but she managed to flee and get away into an elevator and thus escaped, while Max and Yuuko in the Ammit and Anubis mechs respectively dealt with the rest of Dragonelle's henchmen as Roberto and Kubo both got out of the giant mummy mech and made their way to the control panel to try to stop the count down clock but couldn't as Roberto shouted out to Max and Yuuko, "Dammit! She's locked in the firing sequence! We're going to have to blow up the missiles before they launch." seriously with a matching facial expression.

Kubo and Roberto together took one of the elevators and got down to where the missiles were and headed towards them to set them to explode but were fired on from more of Dragonelle's henchmen using laser rifles, as Max in the Ammit mech and Yuuko in the Anubis mech together smashed through the glass windows of the control room above down below and put themselves between Kubo and Roberto and the henchmen shooting at them, effectively shielding the two of them, as Max went turbo and jumped out of the Ammit mech while charging at the group of henchmen before it exploded from being shot with the laser rifles of Dragonelle's henchmen and knocked out most of them, Kubo set the timer on the missiles to explode in thirty seconds before shouting out to Max and Yuuko, "Okay guys, it's about to get real ugly up in here!" seriously with a matching facial expression as Max countered one of the henchmen who tried to hit him with his laser rifle by hitting him with a crescent kick before Yuuko in the Anubis mech picked up and threw another henchman at the one Max had just kicked knocking them both out as Max informed Yuuko, "You better bail Yuuko! That thing is not built for speed!" seriously with a matching facial expression as the self destruct count down timer on the missiles reached only fifteen seconds remaining.

Yuuko did as Max said and got out of the Anubis mech and ran with Max to a nearby elevator Roberto and Kubo found and prepared as Roberto said, "Here! Fastest way out!" as Max and Yuuko got in the elevator with Roberto and Kubo and rode it up out of the Pyramid, narrowly escaping the explosion of the missiles inside as the timer hit zero, and found themselves on a nearby ledge as Max caught Kubo and kept him from falling causing Kubo to say, "Thanks." to Max as Yuuko pointed and shouted, "Look!" showing Hawk as it was being remote controlled by Chuck from Behemoth, it then stopped in front of all four of them but there was only room for three people in it, Max then declared, here you three get in Hawk and get out of here." to which Yuuko asked, "But what about you?" to which Max remarked, "I'll improvise." before grabbing a large rectangular piece of metal as Hawk took off, Max then put the piece of metal down and got on top of it and rode it down the collapsing pyramid, letting out a loud, "YEEHAW!" as road down like as if he were either surfing, snowboarding or skateboarding where upon reaching the bottom he was picked up by Yuuko, Kubo, and Roberto and all four of them made it back on to Behemoth.

Now later on Max was sitting with his hand behind his head as Yuuko walked in and asked, "Hey, you need anything?" kindly, sincerely, and curiously with a matching facial expression, Max got up and looked Yuuko in the eyes and takes her hand as he speaks, "Yuuko, today while I was depowered, it made me realize how much I truly depend on you, so thanks for always sticking with me through idiots to cyborgs, to crazy psychopaths, to mech suits, to whatever else we may face." sincerely with a matching facial expression as Yuuko smiled.

The girl was red, brushing her hair behind her ear and holding his hand before responding, "I stick with you because I love you, you baka." sincerely with a matching smile on her face as Max Max held her hand with both of his hands, "I love you two." sincerely and lovingly with a matching facial expression. The two of them then kissed happily and lovingly.

Elsewhere at Dread's secret headquarters, John Dread was sitting in his office reading a report when a knock came at his office door, John announced, "Enter." to whoever it was that was knocking at his office door, as Dragonelle entered the office with a heavy sigh before speaking, "Sir, I take personal responsibility for the failure of Chaos Strike." disappointed with herself as she hung her head low.

John however remarked, "Hmm, you're too hard on yourself my dear, the great pyramid has been desecrated, and the explosions left no evidence to trace the crime back to us, tensions in the region will rise as planned, besides the test of the Dread Probes was a qualified success, certainly more R & D is required, but I believe that our ultimate victory is right at hand." confidently with a matching facial expression as he held a vile full of Dread Probes in purple colored suspension fluid.

To Be Continued.