Disclaimer: Max Steel and other characters belong to Mattel, Sony, KidsWB, and others. Titaina Steel is mine. Thanks go to Maxy Steel for the malfunction idea and help on some of the dialouge. The first part of the Jeff-Max talk is hers.
"This is my world, Laura," Max said as he led Laura Chen through the secret, hidden world of the real N-Tek. Outside, N-Tek was just another sports company. But underneth it all was a vast, underground complex designed to twart the plans of the world's terriorists.
"Max," Cat hissed. "Are you crazy?!? What is she doing here!?!
"I found out that my boyfriend, Josh McGrath was also Max Steel," Laura answered, eyeing Cat. "Berto?" she gasped as Dr. Martinez came up.
"Hola, Laura," the Spanish teen greeted her. He turned to Max. "Smith wants to see you. Part of it is something about Laura being here..."
"Oh, man!" Max visiblely slumped. He slowly walked to Jefferson Smith's office, dreading the meeting with his boss --and Josh's father.
"Now," Cat said, looking Laura up and down. "What are we going to do with you?"
Max stood in front of Jefferson Smith's desk, feeling all the world like a schoolboy standing in front of the principal. He waited for his boss/father to give him his full attention. When the older man did, Max wished that this part was all over with.
"I can explain this..." Max began.
"I'm waiting," Jeff eyed his son carefully.
"Well, Laura and I were starting to do something you would have gotten reallyy mad at me for, and she hit the transform button." Max watched his father for a reaction, hoping it would not be explosive.
"And she witnessed Josh becoming Max."
"Yeah. She did."
"And you told her everything."
"Yeah." At the look his father gave him, Max continued, "I didn't have much choice. How was I going to explain being Josh McGrath one second, and Max Steel the next?"
Jefferson Smith let out an even, but exasperated breath. He knew that Max would not reveal N-Tek secrets to anyone unless he felt for certain that Max could trust the one he told. And Max had been put in an almost inescapible position. There was no way in Heaven or on Earth that Max could explain the transformation without explaining about N-Tek. He could not even lie his way out of it. Under the circumstances, Max did the only thing he could.
"We'll have to address this problem later, Max. Right now, you and Cat have an assignment in Toyko..."
Max listened as his boss/father continued with the details of the assignment, gratefull --and relieved-- that the problem with Laura and N-Tek had been shelved for the time being. Maybe a solution would come to them later.
While Max and Cat were on their way to Toyko, Jefferson Smith was talking with Laura. Racheal would monitor Max, while Berto went to check on the Transphasic Energy Chamber. Every so often, a diagnostics test would be run on the important piece of equipment, and it was way overdue for a check-up. And what if something went wrong with the Chamber, and Max came in and needed a dose of "T-Juice" --as they called the Tranphasic Energy-- ?
Berto flipped the switches on the generator and began taking readings. To his astonishment and concern, the readings were off, even strange.
I'd better fix this, the young scientist thought. No telling when they're going to get back. He left the room for his tools.
"Max!" Laura gasped, as Cat and Charles "Chuck" Marshak carried Max into the underground complex.
"The assignment had him running all over the place, and he was 'Going Turbo' constantly," Cat answered. "He's completly drained! We've got to get him to the Transphasic Engery Chamber --and fast!" Cat and Marshak continued on to the "T-Juice Chamber".
"'Transphasic Energy?'" Laura asked, looking worriedly at Jeff.
"It's the energy that his Max Probes run on, like normal humans run on food," Jeff explained. "Without it, the probes literally starve to death, taking Max --Josh-- with them."
"Oh, no!" Laura gasped. She could not lose him. Not now.
Cat and Marshak lowered Max into the chair in the Transphasic Chamber, and strapped him in. Berto was not there, so Cat turned the generator on. The huge rings whirled around Max, going faster and faster, until they were a blur. As they spun, they began to glow with yellow energy, building in power, until finally a beam of yellow energy fell from the roof, bathing Max in its power.
Berto rushed in at that moment, his tool box in his hand.
"What's going on?!" he exclaimed in alarm. He saw Max in his chair, and the generator on.
"Max needed a recharge," Cat said simply. She and the others were watching Max's recharge from the safety of the protective room high overhead. "What's the big deal?"
"The generator isn't working right!" Berto shot back. "The diagnostic readings were strangely off. I just went for my tools to fix it!"
Berto, Cat, Jeff, Laura, and Marshak watched in horror as the beam switched from yellow to green and back to yellow again several times. As the engery built, the generator started to give off a grinding sound. Then, before anyone could react, the generator exploded.
"Max!" the assembled crowd screamed together. In an instant, Cat and Marshak was down the stairs and in the chamber, unstrapping Max from the chair and hauling him through the door and down to the medbay.
Laura, Cat, Jeff, and Marshak waited outside the medbay as Berto and Dr. Anne Marx examined Max for injuries. Jeff spoke with Laura about the secerecy of N-Tek, more to kill time and keep his mind off of what had happened to Max than to ensure the safety of N-Tek's secrets.
"You do understand that you can't tell anyone about this, don't you? Our operation depends on the upmost secrecy. If any of this ever gets out, our enemies could destroy all the good we do," he told her.
"Yes, I know. I...I...won't tell a soul," she whispered softly, her attention on the condition of her boyfriend than on the dark-skinned man speaking with her.
Berto came out of the medbay, concern in his dark eyes.
"How is he?" Jeff was the first to speak.
"Physically, he's uninjured," the Spanish youth replied, "but there's something in the probes --something I don't understand..."
"What happened?" Jeff asked.
"I'm still studing the readings. They don't make any sence. We may never know what really happened. But it's already had one effect on Max."
"What?" Laura asked.
"The accident in the Transphasic Energy Chamber caused a shift in the probes. Best way I can describe it is that the probes found something wrong, and decided that the best course of action was to blow out one of his abilities. They chose the least --at least, in their opinion-- needed power, and eliminated that to save the rest of him."
"And that power was..." Cat encouraged him to go on.
Berto hesitated, but decided to continue. He pushed his glasses up on his nose as he dropped the bombshell.
"His ability to transform between Josh McGrath and Max Steel. Until we find a way to fix this --if ever-- he is permenantly Max Steel. He may never again be Josh McGrath."
Those in the waiting room looked at each other in disbelief. Josh --gone? And only Max to serve as proof that Josh had ever been there in the first place?
Could things possibly get any worse?
Chapter 3: Enter: Titaina Steel