Chapter 7

The next morning, she woke up with her head hurting. Her arms and legs were sore, her back felt like it was burning, and her throat was sore as well. She didn't understand why until what happened yesterday flooded back into her mind. She groaned.

"There goes the thought of it all being a bad dream," she said as she sat up. She walked over to her dresser and put her hair up in a high ponytail. There was a knocking at her door. When she opened it, she saw her mom standing outside.

"Hey, Mom!" Max said nervously. She hid herself behind the door as to hide the suit from her mom's view. "Everything... good?"

"Just making sure you're up," Molly said. "You need to be out the door in fifteen." With that, she walked off.

Max quickly shut the door and looked around when she remembered something else. "Steel?" He once again was no where in sight. That was when she heard a rustling behind her. She glanced over her shoulder and had to do a double take. Floating towards her was a heap of her clothes. She stumbled backwards and fell over. Sure that her mom had heard her crash, she called, "I'm okay! Situation normal!"

She got up and stared as Steel emerged from the floating bundle of clothes. "Why?"

"Utilizing security protocol Zed795," he explained. "I spent the night scanning your clothing to replicate your rather... unique look."

"Again. Why?"

"I figured that you wouldn't want to be seen in public with the SteelSuit fully visual. And since it's unsafe for you to remove the suit, through the use of sophisticated holographic refraction processes and advanced tactile warping algorithms, I can make it seem as though you're wearing your everyday attire."

Max scratched the back of her neck. "So... Camouflage mode."

"That is what I just said."

"And you didn't mention this yesterday because?"

Steel shrugged. "You never asked." He got into his little formation and did his thing. When the SteelSuit was done morphing, Max wasn't in the right clothes.

"What the-" She looked down at herself. She was in one of her mom's outfits.

"Ooh! Sorry. This was an outfit from your mother's closet."

"What were you doing in my mom's close-?" Her sentence was cut off as the SteelSuit morphed again. This time, in correct clothes.

She walked in front of her mirror. She was in jeans and a red jacket with a symbol across it that showed the form that Steel went to. The jacket turned from red to green to purple and finally stopped at a dark blue. The sleeves were rolled up to her elbows and the zipper wasn't all the way up, showing a gray shirt underneath.

"Whoa..." she gasped. Max was absolutely shocked. The outfit fit her perfectly. Steel popped out from the SteelSuit as Max just stared.

"Now you are safely contained in the SteelSuit while dressed in a typical fashion," Steel said. Max grabbed her backpack and held her hand out just behind Steel. She snatched him out of the air and put him in her bag. She zipped it mostly closed, then started outside before he had a chance to say anything.

Max walked through the halls when Karly got her attention. "Hey, Max," Karly said, shoving her hands in her pockets. "Thanks for what you did yesterday. Those bullies were really about break their knuckles on my face."

Max chuckled. "No prob, Karly."

"Let's totally hang out sometime. Let me give you my number." Karly pulled her phone out of her pocket. Max reached in her bag and pulled out the phone that she had with her. She shouldered he bag then looked at the phone in her hand. It wasn't hers. "Why is you're phone smoked? Literally?"

"Oh man!" Max exclaimed. "I totally forgot." She started walking off, giving Karly a later sign. Max had totally forgotten about accidentally swapping phones with Decker. Not only that, but she had also destroyed the phone. "Decker is going to kill me."

"Who is this Decker fellow and why does he want you dead?" Steel asked. There was the voice in her head again. How was she ever going to get used to this?

"To summarize it? I blew his phone up with Turbo energy and I don't know how to fix it."

"May I see the device?"

Max tilted her head in confusion. "Why?"

"Just let me see it."

Max dropped the phone into her bag and walked into the cafeteria. Decker had said to meet up but he never said where so Max had to guess. The phone suddenly jumped out of the bag and into Max's hands. It was completely fixed, as if it wasn't ever broken in the first place.

"Steel, you are a life-saver," she whispered.

"Max, there you are!" a voice called. Max looked up to see Decker coming towards her. "Cool! You remembered to bring my phone."

"What? Oh this. Yep. Here you go!" The two swapped and Max shoved hers in her bag. Decker began scrolling through his phone.

"Max. That's amazing! You made me a playlist."

"I - I did?"

"You did," Steel's voice rang in her head.

"Oh. I... yeah, I did." Max smiled sheepishly. Nice save, Max.

"But how? My phone couldn't even play music." Decker looked at Max expectantly.

"That would be because I... tinkered with it."

"Well, I can't wait to listen to it. I'll see you later, Maxine McGrath." Decker walked off, casting a last glance over his shoulder as he said Max's name. She waved him off and as soon as he was out of earshot, she dropped the act.

"A playlist?" she asked.

"He seems okay," Steel said. "For a human." Max heard her phone ding in her bag. Sighing, she took her bag off, reached for her phone, and read the message.

"Get to N-Tek after school," the message read. "Uncle Ferrus."

Max shrugged. She didn't have that much homework anyway. She didn't have to wait long either. She messaged him back saying that she would and stuffed her phone back in her bag.

Max ran through the streets, her bag banging against her back as she did. Forge had told her to go to one of the alleyways. Using her Turbo energy, she could reveal the entrance, but there were a few possible spots in the area for the entrance to be.

She reached the alleyway and it was deserted. It was lined with brick buildings that were covered in graffiti. Platforms were standing against the walls. Trash dumps were open and pushed against a wall as well. Steel flew out of her bag and hovered beside her as she looked around.

"Where did Uncle Ferrus say the entrance was again?" she asked. She flared and launched it at one of the walls. Nothing happened.

"Strike one!" Steel said.

"Okay..." She flared again and did the same thing. This time, something was revealed. It was like a race car painted green and white. Surrounding it seemed to be a blue pixel grid. "Whoa." She ran forward and jumped in the seat. Seat belts popped out and crossed over Max like an 'X'. Steel looked in front of her and the cockpit was a perfect fit for him. He went into the formation and the race car closed. They shot downwards. Both of them screamed. Max had been on roller-coasters before but they had never had a sheer drop like this. The car spun around a few times.

"This is awesome!" she shouted. If this was how she would get to N-Tek every time, then maybe she could tolerate this. The car came to a stop after a while in front of a huge door with a visible seal going across the middle. The huge, green N-Tek logo was on the door as well. The seat belts came off of her and she climbed out of the seat, her legs feeling slightly numb. Steel came up behind her.

Max took a deep breath. "Here we go," she said. She started forward, Steel by her side. The door opened up before them and behind it were Kat, Berto and Forge. They were all bent over a platform with a bunch of switches and buttons. They turned to Max and Steel.

"Ready to get started?" Forge asked.

"Ready," Max confirmed. She set her backpack on the ground and she and Steel walked into the room which Kat led them to. "Go Turbo!" Steel went into his formation and slammed onto the SteelSuit. Max felt the suit morph back into normal, or base mode, as she wanted to call it.

"Today, we're interested in learning your abilities and your bond with Steel." Forge gave a nod to Berto. He was holding a tablet and pressed something on it. Behind them, a huge robot rose out of the floor. "Knowing your limits will help us keep you and everyone around you safe." The robot took a huge leap and landed a few feet away from Max. She charged towards the robot, testing it out to see if she could knock it over without changing modes. That didn't work so well. The robot swung its arm around and knocked Max back a good distance.

"Okay," she said, steadying her breath. "Go Turbo! Strength!" The suit morphed into Strength mode. She clenched her fists as the robot ran towards her. This time, she was ready. She punched her hand through the robot's middle, causing it to go mostly limp. "Heads up Berto!" With her other hand, she knocked the robot's head clean off its body. It flew right to Berto who just barely managed to catch it. He stared blankly at Max who was already in a fighting stance, taunting him to send another one after her.

His eyes narrowed and Max took that as a "Challenge accepted." He pressed one of the buttons on his tablet and another one landed in front of her. She ran at it, thinking she could do the same thing she did with the last one. Yet again, she was mistaken. The robot was expecting this as he brought the arm up that had a blaster on it.

"Max, look out!" Steel shouted. Max jumped up in the air to avoid the shot but was blasted in the chest when she wasn't guarded. It knocked her back, slamming her against the wall. The SteelSuit morphed back into base mode. The helmet wasn't there either. Though, she didn't mind. She had the perfect plan to take the robot down.

But she knew Steel would hate it. She flipped out of the way when another shot was fired at her. Then another. And another. Only when she rounded a corner did she have to initiate her plan. With a lot of force, she managed to get Steel to disconnect, as confused as he was about what Max was doing.

Thankful that Steel was still in his position, she grabbed his stiff arm, leaped up in the air, and threw Steel like a boomerang to the hip joint of the robot. Steel cut through it like a knife through butter. The robot exploded as Max landed on her feet.

"Whoa!" Forge exclaimed.

Good, Max thought. I am able to surprise him. She looked up and Steel floated around. His optic was a swirl, most likely meaning he was dizzy as heck. Max cringed as she reached out a little.

"Sorry, Steel," she said. He shook his hull and gave Max a look. He didn't like what she did, but he wasn't too mad about it.

Max heard Berto give a growl - however possible it was for him to growl - and a beep. Multiple robots shot out from behind him, each one landing at a fair distance from her.

"One, two, three," Steel counted as each one landed. "four, five, six." He hovered next to Max. He turned to her and shrugged. "You're it!" He tapped her shoulder and flew off, Max following behind.

"Go Turbo! Strength!" she shouted. She jumped in the air as Steel connected to the SteelSuit. It morphed into Strength mode. She looked from one robot to the next seeing which one was the closest. She took one out. Then another. She was about to take out a third when one of the robots blasted her forward. The SteelSuit morphed back into base mode as she got stuck to one of the robots. Only just after did the robot look down at her did it start spinning her.

She wasn't exactly how long she was spinning for but she knew when it stopped. She felt like her lunch was coming up her throat and her brain was in a tornado. She went into a panic when she looked down. She was way above one of the canyon pillars and was falling quickly.