A/N: Sorry about the delay, but as usual school, friends, and working out have sort of taken up a lot of my time. That said, here is chapter nine.

Understandably weary after three hours in a room learning about weapons basics then another two in a simulation that taxed all of her muscles to the limit, it was all Sydney could do to keep both herself and Kirby going, briefly glancing down at the directions to N-Tek's main cafeteria in her left hand which was under his shoulders in an effort to better control him. She had a feeling that it was only due to her own tri-weekly vigorous workout routines on top of the workout she got at school because of mandatory Physical Exercise that she was even still standing now. The truth of this whole thing was, she had actually known Max's secret for roughly two years now, she had just kept quiet because she also remembered what happened the last time she knew his secret. As much as she wanted to physically help, she knew that it was better for all if she helped in the small ways such as covering for him when he suddenly had to leave for a generally unexplained reason. After all, someone had to cover for him when he left class early or had to ditch both her and Kirby in the middle of a fun day.

The memory actually came back to her while she was running on her treadmill at home when she miss stepped and hit her head. While blacked out, these strange visions and images popped up in her head as if part of some long forgotten dream. The thing was, they felt too real to be anything but memories. When she came to again, she knew that while short, they contained enough information to make her curious enough to follow Max one day after claiming food poisoning when they hadn't eaten in hours. From what she knew of the condition, it typically hit within twenty minutes of eating. So realizing something was up, she waited until Max was a safe enough distance away before telling Kirby that she had some homework that she had completely forgot about and was due the next day. Luckily for her, he bought it within seconds which allowed her to shadow Max in to an ally where he had just transformed into superhero Max Steel. The only reason she knew it was him was due to the fact that she had seen him sprint into the same location mere seconds before. This is what truly told her that what she had recalled was anything but fake. So until a situation arose that required her to reveal such knowledge, she promised herself to keep it a secret. Even though now seemed as good as ever a time to tell him, there simply had not been enough time as of late to do so. Between her and Kirby receiving crash course training in weapons and fighting so far, and not having seen Max since they got here who knew how long ago due to not being able to look at her watch at the time due to practically carrying Kirby, the time had never shown itself.

On verge of collapse due to lack of energy, Sydney finally rounded the last corner and spotted the destination several steps ahead and would have cried out in joy had she not been so tired. Drawing upon the last of her fading energy, she dragged both herself and Kirby the several steps to the room and pushed her male friend onto the nearest chair before following suit and collapsing in her own to his left. "Rough session?" Agent Ward teasingly questioned, easily able to see how exhausted they both were. Even without knowing who they were, he knew that they were civilians by their lack of uniform. In any other situation, he would have been curious about two non-personnel being inside N-Tek, but 1) this was not a normal event with what was going on outside and 2) he like many others had gotten Forge's message about letting certain civilians in on the secret. So going off that logic, these must have been two of them, knowing that they would not have been allowed in, nor found their entrances otherwise.

"That obvious?" Sydney rhetorically questioned back, at least attempting to look more alert than she really was, if only to be polite to the cute in a professional sort of way, man sitting across from her. Going off looks alone, he had to be someone high ranking. With those big brown eyes that looked both tough and soft, hair that appeared to be perfectly styled yet also blown sideways, strong fit body that appeared to be able to take anything thrown at it and the barest hint of a beard, she knew that he was someone people likely would want with them in battle and a man likely every female here wanted as a boyfriend. Speaking of which, did he even have a girlfriend? 'Eh, who cares he's cute,' she deliriously thought, staring at him with love stuck eyes, Max momentarily forgotten in her haze filled mind.

Awkwardly coughing in an attempt to get her gaze off him, he went on, "Yeah, sort of. Hey why don't I get you two something to eat," and without waiting for a response, he took off in the direction of the food, grateful to escape her obviously love filled eyes. Sure she was cute in her own way with wearied yet obviously still innocent green eyes, messy blond hair that appeared ready to escape it rubber trap at any time, and overall appearance of childlike curiosity mixed with determination to face any task given, made him wish he was either a few years younger or her a few older, not knowing she was already dating one of N-Tek's star agents. Having gotten her a grilled chicken sandwich with lettuce and tomatoes and a plain double cheese burger for her friend, Agent Ward brushed off the superficial attraction and pulled out some cash and paid for their meals before quietly heading back to the table, preparing himself to deal with the love struck teen once again. Due to N-Tek and his organization supposedly not knowing about each other, no trace of him was allowed to be found here, at least that's what his superior told him before sending him here.

Head having fallen on the table in his absence, Agent Ward could not help but laugh quietly to himself. He couldn't help it, she just looked so cute when tired and exhausted. Quietly setting the food down and sliding back into his seat, he made as if to eat the hamburger when it was snatched right out from under his nose. The catch was, it was not who he thought. No the hand was definitely male in appearance, thus meaning that it could only belong to one other person, Kirby. Even with his eyes closed, the young man proceeded to shove the food into his mouth. Well, more like tried to. In his sleep addled state, he got more around his mouth than in it, thus turning his once juicy burger into a nice meaty salad.

Whereas Sydney on the other hand had enough dignity to wake up as much as she could before accepting the mouthwatering meal and slowly waking up a little more with every bite. Remembering something that he had forgotten and knew would be highly helpful for the civilians, Agent Ward got up and grabbed two cups of coffee, adding a quarter cup of creamer and two sugars into both, making it the way the two scientists with whom he worked with liked theirs, because he didn't know how the two teens back at the table liked theirs let alone whether or not they drank the stuff. Due to how often everyone in this line of work continually grabbed the caffeinated liquid, he knew N-Tek had simply decided to make it free 24 hours a day, before he even left his seat.

Contrary to popular belief, this was not his first time here. Rather, he had been here a few times before with his well-known boss. Although something that was little known was the fact that his boss and Forge went back years, and it was only due to his hackivist friend that he even knew at all. It had been a day like any other between missions and he was simply wandering around the "bus" as they called it, when she pulled him into her little room and told her the information. Apparently she had been bored and been looking for random information, or so she said, and found that little piece.

That was actually part of the reason why he was here, but the rest of the team was not. Supposedly, neither organization was supposed to know about the other, but due to both male's friendship of course the "secret" got out, but only to a select few of course. So Ward was sent here simply to check on things and see if they needed any help, after his superior found out about his knowledge on the subject through his own super-secret agenty ways. He would have called the rest of the team for back up on this situation hours ago, but something seemed to be blocking the signal, whether it was internal or external he did not know. Not only that, but he was sure that by now they had already heard of this incident and were working on calling in the troops to help. Due to being busy helping to train the handful of civilians that had arrived with their agent friends/families, he had been unable to receive word either way. Until then, he continued back to the table carrying both cups of steaming liquid, setting them down in front of each person and telling them to drink as it would help them.

Still exhausted, both slowly did as told and got scalded by the burning coffee which in turn helped to wake them up, at least for the moment. Although their superficial injuries could have been avoided, Agent Ward could not resist as the same thing had been used on him in the past by his boss on the few occasions where he fell asleep on the job. Truthfully, it was sort of funny to be on the other end of said prank and watch their reactions; even though he could only imagine that he looked exactly the same. Actually, now that he thought about it he knew exactly how he looked thanks to his hackivist friend who of course hacked her way into the on board security cameras and showed him along with their two scientist friends his facial reactions. This was only after she caught their boss doing it to him once before and needing to see his reaction when he watched the footage. It was a piece of evidence that as far as he knew, she still kept as potential blackmail material.

Humorlessly laughing due to still worrying about his only family two floors below, Max agreed that she could also be scary in her own way, as while they have not actually seen her upset themselves, they have heard stories from other agents that have scared them enough. Moving on to other topics, Steel proceeded to update both Max and Berto on Kirby and Sydney's progress. "….so while Kirby needs to work on actually having a plan before attacking, Sydney was actually like Max in that she did not think about using the objects around her, instead just using brute force. Other than that, they did great in understanding the basic weapons course. All we need to do now is quickly teach them how to control their emotions in battle, maybe let them test fire some of the weapons they will be given and they should be good to go….after a few hours rest of course." Seeing the dubious looks on both young men's faces, he quickly added, "Think about it, unlike the both you, neither of them has been trained to push themselves like this. If we were to send them out into battle the way they are, chances are high that they would die fairly quickly due to exhaustion. Adrenalin can only get so far, your physical strength has to do the rest."

Unable to disagree because of the logic behind Steel's words, Berto and Max could only look at each other and share a silent look of agreement before continuing on to the cafeteria , figuring that is where the little robotic alien left them, hence the reason why they were not present.

"So….anything else to report on your end, Berto," Max carefully questioned, walking down the long hallway hoping to get more answers about his uncle and mom without seeming too impatient. While he knew that his mind should be focused on the mission, the truth was that it was a lot easier in theory than in practice. They were the only biological family he had left, so if he lost them…..he would make hell look like a paradise for Dread and Elementor. Ok, maybe it wouldn't get that far, but that would only be due to his morals and those still around him such as Kat, Jefferson and Berto. Thanks to Dread he knew what his power could truly do if used the wrong way.

Thanks to having known the young man for the better part of two years, Berto could tell what he was really asking and told him that as of yet he has not received any new information. That answer not being good enough for him, Max changed course and headed for N-Tek's onsite fully equipped hospital, planning on doing something he has meant to do ever since first finding out about them. The thing was, he could not bring himself to do so until the news fully set in, which was now. As much as he had wanted to see them for himself, at the same time, he did not wish to see them hooked up to all sorts of wires and machines. Now that the news has had time to settle in and become real, he knew that if this was in fact their last night, he did not want to spend it away from them. If the worst happened, he at least wanted a chance to say good-bye, something he didn't have the chance to do with his dad due to being really young at the time and not understanding what was going on.

Confused at where the young field agent was going, as their destination was ultimately to their left and he was heading right, Berto asked him where he was going to which he responded using the above logic. Now fully understanding, Berto was about to let him go, when Steel asked if he wanted them to go with him, to which he wanted to say yes, but knew that Kirby and Sydney likely needed them more in order to continue with the training, so he declined their offer saying it was nice but to go help their friends instead as that was the biggest priority right now. All three of them knew that the sooner they could get back in the field and help the fight, the better.

A/N: Ok first off, I know I just posted a note saying that I was putting this on a semi-hiatus, but as often happens in my life things changed and I found myself with enough time to finish this chapter. Just know that with the way my life is going, updates will be really infrequent.

Now that that's out of the way, let me say this, originally I had planned to have Agent Ward, Berto, Max and Steel meet, but only Berto and Ward knowing the truth about each other's jobs due to each organization not supposedly not knowing about the other. (I did that to keep both shows sort of contained in their own universe hence explaining why there is no crossover on TV.) If you want to read that little scene, please just let me know and I will post it at the end of this fic so everyone has a chance to say yes or no.

Now on another note, I plan to finally reveal whether or not Ferris and Molly live in the next chapter. I don't have it typed yet so it might be awhile until you guys know for sure. Sorry it's taking so long to reveal that, but it's called suspense. Hahahahahaha.

Also, if you will please leave your guesses as to where the cross-over character comes from, I promise to reveal it sometime during the next chapter, depending on where it fits best.

One last thing, as to where there are only nine chapters when there were ten before, I went back and deleted both chapters and replaced it with this one. Hope that clears up any confusion.

Fictionwriter28