Dangerous Dealings

Max Steel no Chishiki Baiten

Dangerous Dealings

General disclaimer: Max Steel belongs to many companies, Kids’ WB!, two different computer animation companies, and a whole mess-o corporate executives. This story is my personal work derived from my inner child getting hold of an uzi and obliterating my good side.

DANGEROUS DEALINGS

A guard, dressed in a black uniform with two gold stars on the shoulder, sat before a large white buliding, a rifle in his hands. An army weapons storage house was behind him. Muffled steps echoed softly near him, and before he could react, a blast of light and electricity hit him. He fell over, unconscious and body sparking somewhat from the powerful surge. Psycho, holding a shock-stick, stepped from the shadows, Vitriol on his heels.

“Get it open,” Psycho ordered, nodding at the door. Vitriol hit the steel doors with a blast of green energy. They flew open after several repeated attacks. Psycho shoved his partner aside and entered. They walked somewhat quietly around the expansive room, glancing at shelves of high-tech weaponry.

“Here it is,” Psycho announced, picking up a rather small crate.

“That’s it?” Vitriol asked incrediously.

“Yes. Now, let’s go,” Psycho replied. They exited, and vanished into the surrounding woods.

Josh, on one of his few days off, was spending it at the beach. Surfing, of course. He was soaking wet from a few unexpected falls, but bright-eyed with anticipation of his next wave.

“Yee-haaa!” he cheered, catching a huge wave, expertly riding it towards the shore. He furrowed his brow, gaging the exact moment to jump.

“Hermano, Smith wants you back to N-tek,” Berto’s voice came through suddenly. All concentration on Josh’s part was lost.

“Whoa!” he yelled, slipping on the wet board and tumbling into the water. His head came up just in time for him to grab a quick breath of air before the wave ran over him. For a few seconds, he was tossed about in the water like a rag, then spat on shore by the pitiless wave.

“Perfect timing, bro,” Josh grumbled, after spitting a stream of water from his mouth.

“Sorry,” Berto apologized, not sounding the least bit sorry, but more like amused.

“So, what’s so important that I need to forego the day off?” Josh asked, rubbing the water from his hair with a towel.

“A new mission. Psycho’s grabbed some super weapon,” Berto explained.

“Ugh. Wonderful,” Josh grumbled sarcastically. He began slowly picking up his stuff, which had scattered when he whipped the towel from the ground.

“Hurry up, hermano,” Berto ordered.

“Yeah, yeah,” Josh mumbled, pushing a button on the bio-link. Moments later, Max jumped in Shadow, clicked the car’s transform button, and sped off.

Rachel and Berto were already at the conference room when Max arrived twenty minutes later. Grumbling something about it being his day off, Max dropped into the seat beside Rachel.

“Last night, the army base fifty miles from Del Oro was broken into by, according to the guard, two men resembling Psycho and Vitriol. Only one thing was stolen, a super laser capable of blasting through any material in a matter of seconds,” Smith began explaining.

“What are we supposed to do about it?” Max mumbled quietly. Smith shot him a look, but said nothing about his son’s comment.

“We’ve located where the laser is being stored, near Del Oro, by where the D.O.X. was held last. Max, I’d like you to retrive it,” Smith continued.

“Oh, boy,” Max replied with fake eagerness. Smith continued to explain the layout of the laser’s location, and where everyone would be.

Max crouched, in stealth mode, in a tree several dozen yards from the building a short while later. It had taken a few mild threats on Rachel's part to get him to shut up, but he had.

“You in position?” the teenager asked into his bio-link. It was dark, the perfect time to retrive the weapon with least difficulty.

“Yes. I’m down one hundred feet from the dock,” Rachel replied. “Good luck,” she added after a momentary pause.

“Yeah, I’m gonna need it,” Max muttered, tuning to Berto’s frequency. “Bro, you got the layout?” he asked, beginning to climb from the tree.

“Right here. Go directly into the door nearest you, and wait for more info,” Berto intoned. “Be careful, hermano,” he warned, watching as Max crept silently across the ground.

“I know,” Max replied in a whisper. He snuck around to the door, and reached for the handle. To his astonishment, it swung open.

“Uh, oh,” Max breathed, backing up frantically. A Dread guard stuck his head out, and glanced suspiciously around. He backed up, quietly, heading towards the corner of the buliding. The guard shut the door after a minute, and the agent let out a sigh of relief. He pulled a graphling hook launcher from the bag on his back and fired it at the roof. Seconds later, he was standing on the roof, tucking the launcher back into it’s respective holder on the pack. He headed for the ventalation system, and ripped the grate off it. He laid it aside and crawled in. A soft crackle, and the bio-link shut off. Max ignored it and pulled himself along the dark, cramped tunnel. He peered through grates as he came to them, seeing Dread agents, various weapons, and finally, twently minutes after he entered, Max glanced into a room, and saw the laser, resting on a small stand surrounded by laser sensors. Max pulled a long rope and several rock climbing clips from his pack. In a few minutes, he had clipped the rope to a stable ring inside the vent and then to the harness he wore. He dropped down carefully, shifting to avoid the infared lasers. His fingers touched the laser barrel, and he quickly snatched the weapon from it’s stand and pulled himself up, back into the duct. He unclipped the rope and shoved it back into the bag, then stuffed the laser in as well.

“Now, time to leave,” he whispered quietly, creeping back the way he had come. A Dread guard almost saw him, but he managed to back away from the grate in time. A few minutes later, he dragged himself from the vent.

“Bro, you there?” he asked, stretching his sore arms above his head.

“Yeah. Did you get the laser?” Berto replied.

“Yep, I’m on my way,” Max finished, heading for the roof edge. He attached one end of the graphling hook to his harness, the other to a pipe. He jumped off the roof, falling ten feet until, with a jerk, he stopped in mid-air. He lowered himself down the rest of the way. After he was safely on the ground, he tugged the clip from the roof and rolled the rope back up. The door he stood near suddenly swung open. Max backed up quickly, smothering a gasp. His arm brushed the wall, and he unknowingly shut off his Stealth Mode. A snap of a twig behind him startled the N-tek agent. He whipped around in time to see a bright flash of blue light, milliseconds before something stabbed his chest, sending a surge of power through his body.

“Aaugh!” he groaned, falling back, unconcious.

“Max! What’s happening?!” Berto demanded frantically, watching the monitor. It shut off with a dull bleep. Psycho clicked off the shock-stick, and bent down, shutting the tracer on Max’s bio-link off.

“What the--” Berto muttered, hearing the tracer signal shut off. He started running a search for the signal, but found nothing. Psycho stood and nodded to two Dread guards behind him. They picked up Max, and carried him inside the building.

Berto counted to 100 in Spanish before tuning to Rachel’s frequency, almost breaking the tuning nob. The device crackled irritably in response.

“Rachel, is Max with you?” he asked breathlessly, crossing his fingers.

“No, why? He’s barely had time to get the laser, much less get here,” Rachel replied.

“He hasn’t contacted you at all?” Berto questioned.

“No. What’s wrong?” the older agent demanded.

“I lost his tracking signal and all visual and audio links with him ten minutes ago,” Berto explained.

“Contact Mairot. I’ll stay here in case he shows up. Radio me if you find anything. Leeds out,” Rachel ordered rapidly.

Berto had contacted Mairot as ordered, and he told the nano-tek specialist to wait until further orders. Berto was scanning for a signal, for the fifth time, when a blip, on Max’s frequency, rose in the tracking grid. Berto’s hand was on the radio frequency knob in seconds.

“Mr. Mairot! I found his tracking signal!” Berto announced.

“Good, where is it coming from? Have you heard from him directly?” Mairot asked quickly.

“It’s in the forest near the laser storage building. But he hasn’t tried to call me,” Berto replied.

“I’ll send Leeds and Nez to go check on it,” Mairot informed the teen.

Rachel and Jake made record time to the general location of the tracer. The next step was tracking down Max and bringing him back, preferably in one whole piece.

“You should be close to him now,” Berto imformed them. Rachel saw the motionless figure first, laying near a tree.

“There he is. Max!” she called. She paused a little as they got closer. The agent lay face down near a tree. Nez and Rachel ran up to him, Nez grabbing him by the shoulders and lifting him partially. He turned him over, and sighed.

“A dummy,” Rachel stated, sounding angry. The dummy had on the same black stealth clothes Max had been wearing, and a band with a tracer on it’s wrist.

“I’d better get back to the docks in case Max arrives,” the blonde agent decided, turning to leave. Nez nodded, grabbing the dummy.

"If that wasn’t him, then where is he?” Berto wondered aloud. He turned to the computer on his right and punched in a command. It bleeped, and started another frequncy scan for Max’s tracer signal. A different computer beeped, announcing the arrival of an e-mail.

“What?” the N-tek scientist muttered, reaching for the computer’s mouse. He clicked on the message. A second later, his hand was tuning the radio to Mairot’s frequency.

“Mr. Mairot! I found Max!” Berto announced, sounding panicked instead of happy. His eyes drifted back to the e-mail, and locked.

“Good, where is he?” Mairot asked. There was a momentary pause.

“I’m not sure...” Berto trailed off, scanning the message for any clues as to Max’s location. He gasped when he found it.

“He’s at Dread’s base!” Berto half-shouted.

“I’m on my way,” Mairot replied. Berto busied himself reading the message while he waited for Mairot. It wasn’t that long, but his eyes kept straying to the attached picture. It was Max, lying face down in a gray concrete room, his face turned towards the camera so, Berto supposed, that he could be identified easily.

“Report,” Mairot ordered, coming up beside the teen scientist. I just got this e-mail. Dread has Max at the base he tried to get the laser from,” Berto explained. Mairot scanned the message, then contacted Smith, gave him a brief outline of the message. Then he called Rachel.

“This is Leeds,” Rachel greeted, picking up her ringing phone. She listened for a moment, then replied, “I’m on my way back.”

Rachel stepped into the TSO room so quietly Berto, Mairot, and Smith didn’t notice her. She leaned against the wall nearby and listened for a moment.

“...get him out of there,” Smith was saying, in as calm a voice as he could manage. The agent in question here was his adopted son.

“But how? We can’t contact him, the cell is comm secured,” Berto pointed out.

“And they have set up an EMP charge, so he can’t even move,” Mairot added. No one questioned the remark, though it seemed a little odd that he should know.

“Send an e-mail back to them, tell them we want proof he’s still alive,” Smith ordered finally. Berto nodded and typed vigoruosly for a second, then sent the message. Five mintues later, Mairot’s phone rang.

“Mairot,” Mairot greeted in a grave voice.

“You want proof your agent is still breathing?” Psycho’s voice asked. Mairot responded affirmitavely, then he and Berto quickly hooked the phone up so everyone in the room could hear. Sounds of Max struggling and grunting, then Psycho warning him to be quiet, drifted through the phone until Max’s voice was heard loud and clear over the speakers.

“Mr. Mairot?” Max half gasped. Mairot leaned closer to the phone.

“Max, are you all right?” Mairot asked in response.

“I think so. I just woke up a second ago,” Max replied, sounding confused.

“Max, this is Smith,” the boy’s father interjected.

“D-Mr. Smith?” Max stuttered. The phone was abruptly taken from him. at that point.

“All right, you’ve got your proof. Comply with our demands, or you won’t see this kid again...ever,” Psycho growled threateningly. There was a crackle of an shock-stick, and Max yelling. Then the phone went dead.

“So we know he’s alive, at least,” Berto stated the obvious in a quiet voice.

“Now we have to get him out of there,” Mairot added. Smith was reluctant to agree with any suggestions, insisting that they were too risky. Rachel listened to the argument a minute more, then stepped forward, clearing her throat as she did. The three male agents finally noticed her.

“Then someone shall have to go retrive him,” she suggested calmly.

“What are you saying?” Smith asked, turning to look at her.

“I’m saying, I should go,” the female agent replied reasonably. They argued about her suggestion, all three guys insisting that she couldn’t go alone, and she replied confidently that she could get both herself and Max out of the Dread base safely. Finally, Rachel angrily stalked from the room, and towards her car. She knew they thought she was angry, but if they thought she was going to head home, then none of them knew her very well. She had absolutely no intention of standing by and watching the three argue while her partner was laying half-dead in a cell at Dread’s base. She headed home, all right, but she was there long enough only to change into the sleath clothing and gear she had been issued. Then she was back out the door, heading for Dread’s base.

Max’s eyes fluttered open for a brief second, and he was dimly aware of a cold hard surface against one side of his face.

“Uhh, unh,” he muttered, bracing one palm against the floor. Two shadows fell across him.

“He’s coming to,” a voice observed.

“The machine needs to be reset,” another voice replied. Max heard a soft whirl of machinery, and then all was black.

Rachel stepped from her car, having parked it a couple hundred feet from the base behind some bushes. She moved swiftly across the grass, invisible in the darkness of night surrounding the base. In much the same way Max had before, she scaled the side of the building. She popped into the vent through the still broken grate, and crept along, trying to find Max. She passed by the laser storage room, and paused briefly, thinking about retriving the weapon. She decided to get it. Besides the fact that it was what Max had come here for in the first place, and the mission would have completely failed if they didn’t get, it, she thought it might come in handy for later. She pulled the grate, surprised at how easily it lifted. Quicky pulling out and hooking up her rope and clips, she lowered her body down. Within two minutes, she was coiling up the rope and and placing the laser in the bag with it. Rachel continued, taking various vent paths, sometimes doubling back, sometimes finding dead ends.

Mairot picked up his phone and dailed Rachel’s cell phone number, Berto having picked up her tracer signal at her home. The phone rang once, twice, three times, then he hung up.

“What happened?” Smith demanded quickly.

“She’s not answering. Martinez, you’re certain her tracer signal is there?” Mairot replied. Berto nodded, thinking about what Mairot had just said. He, Max, and Rachel were such close friends, he could probably guess where she was.

“She stormed out of here, and now we can’t find her. She said she could get Max back by herself...” Berto muttered to himself. His eyes lit up in realization.

“Mr. Mairot, Rachel went to the Dread base!” the teenage genius announced suddenly. The two older men turned to look at the younger N-tek agent.

“You think Rachel went there? Why? She had orders not to--” Mairot started. Berto cut him off quickly. The elder agent frowned, but let the scientist speak.

“You honestly think she’s going to listen when her partner is in trouble?” the boy asked. Smith paused, thinking about the younger man’s words.

“So what do we do now?” Smith wondered aloud. Berto shrugged.

“Wait. If Rachel has her mind set on something, only a nuclear bomb could stop her,” the teen replied. Jean turned to leave.

“Or one too many Dread guards,” he muttered.

Rachel was nearing the end of her patience, and was almost ready to take a Dread guard hostage and find out Max’s location that way, when she passed by the cells. The first one was empty, as was the second. The thrid had two Dread guards outside it, a small black box-like object near them, and a figure laying in the cell. Rachel reconized the green and black N-tek symbol on the shoulder of the figure, who was dressed in black.

“Max,” she breathed, scanning the immediate area, planning her attack. While she prepared, the machine’s effects began to recede. Max groaned and weakly attempted to rise. One agent hit a few buttons on the machine, and the teenager collasped again. Rachel gritted her teeth and ordered herself not to jump down right then. Instead, she crawled around, checking the locations of any Dread guards who might be near. She found none within hearing range, so she returned to the grate over Max’s cell. Rachel studied her location. If she twisted her body at just the right angle as she fell, she’d land right between the Dread agents. She didn’t have to be that quiet, the EMP machine was making a fair amount of noise. Using a long, thin, but strong, file, Rachel pried the grate up. Neither guard even glanced upward. She pushed the grate to the side, and moved in front of the opening. Taking a deep breath, she jumped. Her timing and trajectory were perfect. The guards were both knocked out before they could even glance at her. Rachel turned her attention to the EMP machine. The shut off command was in code, and the blonde agent, irritated by this, simply grabbed one agent’s shock-stick and plunged it into the machine. It sparked, and she stepped back, watching as it puffed out smoke, crackled, and then died. Rachel grabbed the keys where they had fallen during her attack, and opened the cell. Max was just coming to as she knelt beside him.

“Talk about a headache,” he mumbled, bracing himself on his hands and knees.

“Are you all right?” Rachel asked calmly. He dropped his head and shook it several times, trying to clear the fuzziness from his brain.

“Rachel?” he asked, looking at her blankly.

“Don’t move. Wait until you can see clearly,” Rachel replied, as if sensing that he was having sight problems.

“How did you know?” Max asked, sitting on the cold cement floor.

“I figure three straight hours of EMP charge could mess up anyone’s brain,” she joked quietly.

“More than that,” the brunette male agent grinned, standing. He looked around before asking, “how are we going to get out of here?”

“Well, we can’t contact HQ, so we’ll have to improvise,” Rachel suggested.

“Sounds good,” Max finished, glancing around. He looked up at the vent.

“We could go the way you came,” he mused. Rachel nodded.

“But how can we get up there without making a racket?” she asked.

“Here,” Max ordered, cupping his hands into a step. “I’ll give you a boost up, then you can help me,” he suggested intelligently.

“I think the EMP chage made you smarter,” Rachel teased.

“Hey,” Max replied in mock anger, lowering his hands for Rachel step on. He easily lifted her up to the vent, and she pulled herself the rest of the way in.

“Here,” she whispered, holding out her hand. Her fingers barely reached Max’s, but he gripped her hand tightly, and, using the side of the cell he had been in only a short time ago to give him leverage, dragged himself in.

“Now, let’s see how quietly we can get out of here,” Rachel decided, crawling down the vent, Max moving after her.

They were almost to the vent exit, when Rachel heard Max sigh in an exhausted tone, and a thump. She turned partally to see him laying in the tiny crawl space.

“Max! Come on! Get up,” she whispered quietly. He didn’t move. Rachel assumed an EMP machine had been turned on, when it occured to her that machinery noises, unlike the whir of the EMP charger, were still sounding. Then she remembered something Berto had said after their last vacation. If Max drops, and you can’t find any thing wrong, then he’s either very low or completely out of T-juice, and needs to be taken to one of the transphasic energy generator locations. He could die if he doesn’t within a short period of time.

“Wonderful,” Rachel muttered to herself, grabbing Max’s shoulders. She pulled him as she neared the vent exit, pausing every few moments to rest. Each time she paused, she checked his pulse, alamred at how it gradually, but steadily, slowed. At last, she hauled both of them out onto the roof. Immdeiately, she grabbed her radio and clicked it on.

“Leeds to base. Leeds to base. Patch me through to Martinez,” she barked hurriedly.

Berto was sitting quietly before the huge monitor and other machinery designed to monitor Max’s vitals, when several of the monitors, showing breathing, pulse, max probe count, and T-juice level suddenly clicked on.

“What the--” he murmured, typing some commands. Suddenly, Rachel’s vice rang through his radio, scaring him, mostly because of the level the sound was set on.

“Martinez, this is Leeds. Do you read?” she asked quickly.

“Yeah, I hear you. Where are you? The signal’s still fuzzy,” Berto returned.

“We’re on top of the Dread building,” Rachel replied. Then, after a moment, “Berto, we need Hawk up here now,” she added quietly.

“What...” Berto started to ask before turning to the now beeping T-juice monitor. His eye widened when he looked at it.

“Rachel, what happened?! He’s completely out of T-juice!” Berto fairly shouted.

“It must have taken a lot energy to keep him alive with the EMP charge going,” Rachel pointed out. Berto tapped keys at the computer, sending Hawk to their location.

“Hawk’s on it’s way, but try to move closer to the edge,” Berto informed her.

“It’ll take a few minutes,” he added after a moment.

“Minutes that we don’t have,” Rachel intoned quietly.

“How long has it been since he collasped?” Berto asked, trying to gage how much time Max had left. Even five minutes could mean the difference between survival and death for their partner.

“I’m not sure. Maybe a half hour,” Rachel replied after a moment.

“That’s not good,” Berto murmured, more to himself.

“What do you mean?” Rachel asked worriedly.

“He barely made it last time, and he’d only been out for about ten minutes,” Berto reminded her. Rachel dropped down beside Max and shook his shoulder.

“Max! Max, wake up,” she whispered, as if it could do anything to help him.

“He can’t hear you, Rachel. He’s beyond a coma,” Berto piped quietly, checking the monitors. His breathing was slowed, and heart beat was rapidly going down hill. Then Hawk arrived. Rachel lifted and shoved Max into the back seat, then stationed herself in the front. Hawk, on remote, shot towards N-tek. Just as they pulled away, Dread guards appeared on the roof. Blasts of laser zipped by Hawk’s wings. One clipped the right wing, causing a violent bounce for the passengers.

“Switching to manual,” Rachel announced, taking the jet’s controls. She expertly shot the plane into high gear and was soon steering around trees, keeping out of the laser’s range. In the back, Max made a barely audible groan.

“Hang on, Max,” Rachel murmured, the N-tek base coming into view. Berto was waiting for them, with Dr. Yevshenko and a stretcher.

“Careful,” Yevshenko warned as the two N-tek agents lifted their fellow agent from Hawk. The stretcher was rolling at high speed towards the transphasik energy generator the instant Max landed on it. Rachel and Berto were watching through the glass viewing panels as Max was being set into the chair, when Smith and Mairot appeared. Rachel kind of swallowed and stepped back behind Berto. No one said anything as they watched Max be lowered into the center of the generator. The circular discs began to spin, and the green energy crackled, building. It was collected in a spike-like object hanging directly above Max’s head, and then shot straight down into his body.

A short while later, the teenager had been taken from the generator, and given an examination. Dr. Yevshenko pulled her stethoscope away from Max's chest, and took the amplifiers from her ears.

“He should be fine within the hour,” the female doctor annnounced. Max was sound asleep on a bed in the med room. Smith and the others were crowded in. Smith turned to Rachel.

“Ms. Leeds, I want you to know I’m disappointed that you openly ignored orders,” Smith began. Rachel averted her gaze to Max’s face.

“But, I am grateful as well. Max might not have survived had you not gone to the Dread base and retrived him. Thank you,” Smith finished, turning to look at his son. Rachel was silent for a moment, then she spoke, barely above a whisper.

“You’re welcome, sir.”