Chapter 1

Maxwell Mcgrath loved being a superhero, fighting bad guys and saving the world! Alongside with Steel, who he not only needed to live (and not blow up), but who was his best friend. It had been over a month since he and his father had defeated the alien warlord, Makino.

And that was another thing, His dad, who was an alien which made him a half alien. Long thought dead, Max and Steel found that Makino was using his father as an energy generator, using his father's natural release of energy to power his planet absorbing death ship. They used that very energy, to destroy Makino. Stopping a full scale alien invasion and saving planet earth.

Max loved having his father in his life, he grew up without him. But having him back was amazing, and filled a hole long thought to never be filled again.

Something Max didn't love, was how late most of the Copper Canyon Criminals stayed up. After he had finished taking care of two bozos in stupid hawaiian shirts, and a half a dozen other crimes. He and Steel set back to the newly rebuilt N-tec base. Neither of them were quite awake. Something Max was grateful for, autopilot.

In his Turbo flight mode, they headed silently back to base under a full moon. His blue jets buzzed quietly in the still night. Max drowsily appreciated the stars as they flew under the canopy of night. He was grateful that he was still alive to see them.

Without warning, Max and Steel crashed into something midair, pulling them both from their sleepy state.

"Max! What was that?" Steels robotic voice shouted, and the front of Max's suit lit up as he spoke.

Before he could answer, he heard a scream and a dark raspy voice that yelled "CLAIRE!" There was a burst of bright blue light as something hit the ground with enough force to register on a richter scale.

Jim loved it when he and Claire were able to get time away from the trolls, especially when it didn't involve the glamor mask. They were running and jumping from the plateaus and mesas on the outskirts of a city called Copper Canyon. It was rightfully named too. He could smell the copper within the rocks he ran on.

Claire was holding tight to his back, her arms wrapped around his underarms, and her chin resting on his shoulder as her cheek brushed his ear. Jim's tail was wrapped around her tightly for extra security.

It was early in the night. As they ran, Jim and Claire marveled at how bright the stars and full moon were and the stunning beauty of the mountain desert landscape under the clear sky… and Jim even more so than Claire. He could see every detail of the cliffs and their bright orange color was intensified by his enhanced eyesight.

Claire's heart beat excitedly in her chest as they ran and jumped from cliff edge to cliff edge. His mind wandered back to an earlier conversation.

"You and I need to get away from the trolls more." She had said.

"Babe, I am a troll." Jim replied.

"Yes, but you're my troll. And the last time you and I went on a date, we got stuck at S.T.A.R. labs, and you ended up fighting alongside the Flash. And as much as I love human company, I want to spend some time with just you."

Claire had managed to convince Jim that gallivanting around in the desert at night would make them both feel better. Of course she was right, she always was.

Jim was thoroughly enjoying himself, but when right after he'd jumped across a particularly large gap, he heard a small buzz. His ears twitched against Claire's cheek.

She was about to ask if something was wrong when out of nowhere, something glowing a faint blue rammed into them, midair, over a canyon. Claire lost her grip and screamed.

Jim let out a whine as he quickly regained his bearings midair. "CLAIRE!" he screamed. Angling his body toward hers he was able to grab her arm with his long tail that spanned at least half his body. He pulled her to his chest and watched as the ground quickly approached, making sure he'd time it right he craned his neck to see the stone floor of the canyon then said, "For the glory of Merlin, Daylight is mine to command!"

The armor enveloped him right as he and Claire hit the ground, softening the landing significantly. Had he been human, he would have been dead. And had he not of softened the blow with the protection of the armor, Claire would have died on him.

He let the armor dismiss itself as the dust around him settled

Everything ached, his horns were digging into the ground and he felt as though his back was broke. Claire lay curled up on his chest whimpering, tears rolling down her face, his tail was securely around her, he gave her a gentle squeeze to let her know he was fine. Jim stared up at the stars for a moment in pain then was brought back as he saw a flash of blue come down several yards away from him. The same blue that had knocked him and Claire out of the sky and almost killed her!

As carefully as he could, he moved Claire off his chest onto the ground beside him, his human instincts lost the battle to his trollish instincts pitifully. Right now, he wanted to shred the thing that hurt her, tear it into a million pieces. He turned and snarled violently at the thing, it looked like a person, with some sort of helmet and body armor to match. White, blue and black, markings glowed under the moonlight, he could hear the person's heartbeat, it was rappid.

Jim's snarl grew to a full on blood curdling roar, it's heartbeat increased. On all fours, Jim ran at the humanoid, growling and baring his teeth as he pounced.

"What was that?!" Steel yelled from his position on Max's chest.

"I don't know, but it was definitely alive. Scan for life signs." Max said. He piloted down and landed away from where the thing had landed in the shadows, so he couldn't see it, or them, or whatever it was.

"Steel, what are you picking up?"

"I don't believe this." Steel's voice rang in Max's head.

"What? What is it Steel? They're not dead are they?" He whispered. He watched as he vaguely saw two figures lying on the ground in front of him.

"No, but one of them is giving off a Turbo energy signal." he yelled.

"What? That's not possible. Or at least, I don't think it is."

"Weather it's possible or not, it's there. Do you think that's how they survived that fall?"

Max watched as one of the figures moved, it set the smaller figure off to the side. Then the other turned back to look at him, he heard an inhuman sound come from the individual. It's eyes were glowing. And not just reflecting the moonlight, but actually glowing. The large blue eyes held fury beyond comprehension, then suddenly. It let out a deafening, nightmare inducing roar.

It began to run at him and Steel, on all fours. Like some kind of animal, growling with large teeth baring. As It came out of the shadows and into the moonlight, Max saw something his eyes couldn't believe.

A humanoid figure, with deep blue skin, a pair of horns, and large teeth. A tail swinging behind it all the while it was running at him.

Running at him…

He pulled himself out of his thoughts just in time to doge the creature's jumping attack.

"Steel, what is this thing?" Max shouted.

"I have no clue. But it's the one giving off the slight Turbo energy signature." He said, the voice only heard by Max.

The creature lunged again, swinging fists and… is it wearing a hoodie. Max stood still long enough gaping at the creature, that it was able to ram him in the stomach sending him flying backwards.

"Max, might I suggest not standing and staring at the thing trying to kill us!?"

"Oh right… Go turbo, strength!" Max shouted. Turbo energy flowed around him and the steel suit expanded giving him a larger than life body.

"Now we're talkin'!" Steel yelled.

The creature was a few feet away, and stood straight. Max was surprised at its height. Normally, strength mode dwarfed almost everyone. But this creature was only a few heads shorter. The creature moved to a more defensive position, it's tail whipping around behind it, and It's eyes were dilated in a way that reminded Max of a cat.

He ran at the creature with the full force of the steel suit, and threw a strong right punch directly at the creature. Max didn't expect it to completely stop the punch, his fist was held firmly in the beasts hands.

It grinned wickedly at him and snarled, then in another moment Max was being thrown the length of a football field, until he smashed into the side of a cliff.

The creature snarled again and turned away, bounding off on all fours back to it's companion.

"What just happened Steel?" Max said, not moving because it caused him pain.

"We just got our sorry excuse for hero buttes handed to us on a silver platter."

"Why'd it attack us?"

"Probably because we knocked it out of the sky. It probably felt threatened."

"Should we go talk to it?"

"Hmm, my initial scans did indicate that it is indeed an intelligent being. However, might I suggest putting away the muscle?"

"Right." Max got up and dusted his significantly smaller form off. "Now let's see if this thing can talk." He began his walk back to where the creature was with the other figure. He was wary of what that one might look like, if the first was like… that.

Jim got back to Claire as quickly as he could, as soon as his violent instincts were satisfied with themselves, he made his retreat. He could smell blood, Claire's blood.

Claire lay in the dirt, her eyes were shut tight and tears were rolling down her face as she clutched her arm, Jim saw her forearm had completely broken through the skin. And jutted up at an unnatural angle. He berated himself silently for leaving her to satisfy his instincts. Then knelt at her side, he licked some tears off of her face before he spoke.

"Claire, baby, how you holding up?" He said quietly and bit back a snarl of anger for being knocked out of the sky.

She opened her eyes to reveal purple iris'. Jim surmised the only way she wasn't screaming was because she was using her magic to dull the pain. "Hurts." She stuttered. "How bad, is't?"

"It's a compound fracture, but it's clean break, so it's gonna heal good…" Jim licked her cheek again, his tail wrapped around one of her legs.

"What 'els?" she spoke, her words slurred. Claire winced and shut her eyes tight again.

"I'm going to have to set it… It's going to hurt, a lot."

She only nodded. Jim took off his black hoodie and put the sleeve in Claire's mouth to bite on as he set the bone back into place.

Jim took her arm as carefully as he could from her other, and she cried out in silent sobs. "One…" he spoke quietly. "Two…" Claire's eyes tightened more and Jim's heart hurt for her. "Three!" As he said it he set the bone back into place with a stomach retching sound. She screamed in agony as tear rolled down her cheeks with fury. She breathed heavily, she felt her arm was back in place, which relieved some of the pain. She spit out the sleeve and opened her brown eyes.

"Thanks, Jim." she stared up at him, her eyes glossy from salty tears of pain. His tail brushed her cheek as to wipe some of the wetness away. Then before he could speak, a green light exploded against his chest, sending him flying away from her. She reached out with her good arm, screaming. "JIM!" but her pain held her back.

She tried to get up, to get to Jim, but this only ended with painful falls and mouths full of dirt. Jim lay there motionless. "Jim," she whimpered.

Claire looked around to see what had shot him. She saw white and green aircrafts, and people in strange uniforms that matched colors with the ships. Most had helmets on, but one man in particular caught her eye. He had a strong build, and gray hair, with bits of white showing up, and an prosthetic arm that reminded her of Draal's. What this man said next made her extremely mad.

"We got 'em! Contain it and take it back to base." His voice was commanding and sure.

"Uncle Ferrus! What are you doing?" the man Jim had previously attacked yelled furiously.

"That thing attacked you and Steel, and I don't know what it was doing to this poor girl. But I could hear her screaming from the jump-jet a mile away."

She turned back to Jim to see masked officers aim something at Jim, then he was encased in a green field that lifted him off the ground, but his body was still. Some more masked people came to her and helped her up, she batted them away with her good arm and glared. Claire picked up Jim's jacket, using her magic to strengthen her. "Get away from me!" she yelled at one of the soldiers.

She looked at the two figures, and watched as something came -off of? Out of?- the masked ones chest in a flash of blue and spoke.

"Uncle Ferrus, it only attacked me because I accidentally knocked it out of the sky." Max said.

"And Forge, did you even read your sensors?" the small hovering creature yelled.

"No, and I don't care, and I don't need to. That thing took you down without even trying. It's dangerous and needs to be contained!" He got in the others face, pointing to where Jim was being loaded. Claire was too weak and in pain to do anything about it, but she walked up to the two individuals and the small flying robot thing and spoke making them all jump.

"That THING," she spat the word. "Is Jim, and your right, he is dangerous. And he's going to be a lot more dangerous when he wakes up and finds that I'm not with him. So I suggest," Claire struggled to keep her eyes brown and not accidentally show her magic. "That, you either let him go or take me with you, or I'll turn one of those fancy green airplanes of yours, to scrap." Her face was set in a dark scowl, and she wished for a moment that she could snarl like Jim.

The man with his face showing, had his eyes blown wide, he probably didn't get told off often. The robot kinda just hovered, with an exclamation mark on his face. And the masked man, she couldn't tell.

The older man steeled his face then spoke, "I'm commander Forge Ferrus, This is Max," he gestured to the masked one, "and Steel." he pointed to the floating robot. He looked back to Claire.

In a 'no nonsense' tone, she replied. "I'm Claire, now let him go."

"I can't do that," the commander said.

Claire scoffed. "I suppose you've never seen a feral animal locked up knowing it's mate was injured then? No?" She shook her head and sighed, then yelled. "I'm serious. If Jim wakes up and I'm not there, I just hope none of your men are bleeding out by the time he finds me." She stood clutching her arm covered by Jim's jacket, which was soaking up the large amounts of blood her arm was letting out.

"Stepping away from dark and creepy," Max said. "Uncle Ferrus, Steel picked something up on his scans. You really need to hear him out."

"Yeah, I scanned this, Jim. And he was giving off…" Steel started but was cut off.

"Negative, there are civilians present, and with that thing posing a threat to copper canyon, I will not be hearing any bone headed ideas from the two of you! Now somebody take her home." Forge yelled, he turned and started walking away.

Claire's anger in that moment out weighed the pain and exhaustion. Her eyes turned purple and she magically pulled the Commander back to face her, forcing him down to her eye level. "I told you. I'm going with you, or Jim is staying here. And if you call him a thing one more time, you can kiss your precious arm goodbye." Claire dropped her magic, in turn dropping Forge on his face. "Now what will it be?" Her face spelled danger and the glow from her eyes intensified her nightmarish glare.

Max and Steel stared at her, she couldn't really tell what they were thinking though.

"Forge?" Steel spoke up.

The man got up and dusted himself off. "Fine! But I want you two to keep a close eye on her." He walked off and got into one of the… what did he call it, the jump-jet. And took off, the others following, and taking Jim with them. Leaving her alone with Max and Steel.

"Ok, how did you do that? Forge never changes his mind about anything! That was amazing!" Steel asked.

Claire's face was hard, and she pressed the jacket against her bleeding arm. "Why did you knock us down? You almost killed me." she snapped her head in Max's direction.

He visibly tensed, and glanced at Steel as if for help. Who, in response, began a simulated whistle of innocence.

"Uh, I was practically asleep. It was a long day and… wasn't really paying attention. I'm really Sorry. I wouldn't never do anything to endanger someone on purpose." Max said.

Claire's face softened. "Well, at least I know you weren't trying to kill us on purpose. Now seriously, I need to be with Jim when he wakes up."

"We're going to do a quick flight back. It's not far…" Max said.

Steel's voice rang in his head, "Max, my scans are showing that something is wrong with her arm. Ask her if she's alright."

"Is your arm alright?" Max asked, quickly glancing down at it and noticing how she was holding it.

"No, the radius has a compound fracture, Jim set it, but I can't do anything with it now."

"Well miss Claire," the robot spoke, "We have good doctors back at base and could get that casted very nicely for you."

"That sounds great, if you could try not to jar my arm though." Claire said.

"I'll do my best," Max said. Then he stepped back and did something truly cliche.

"Go turbo, Flight!" he yelled and Steel went back and planted himself on his chest. A minute later he was in a few inches off the ground in an entirely different suit.

"You ready?" he asked as he picked her up. One arm behind her shoulders and one behind her knees. She winced as he picked her up, but nodded in response to his question. Than a minute later, they were landing inside of one of the large rock formations.

Max took Claire over to the medical room and he was left once again with. "I'm not kidding Max, you need to take me to Jim." it left him feeling on edge and panicked. He made his way into the briefing room, removing his helmet as he entered, his spirits lifted at the sight of his dad, at the center table with Forge. Completely involved in a small device he was working on.

"Hey dad," Max said.

"Hey son." he said not looking up as he tightened a screw on the device

"Alright, now can we finally tell you what we scanned off of him?" Steel spoke.

"Fine, tell me what you scanned." Forge said, acting as though he didn't even care.

"Tachyon Unlimited Radiant Bio-Optimized Energy…" Steel said, Forge's jaw dropped to the floor before quickly shutting again. His dad looked up from the machine that was so important moments before.

"That's not possible!" Forge gasped.

"Nothing is impossible, Forge. Just, very, very, very, very unlikely. Are you sure that's what it was Steel?" Max's dad said.

Steel nodded, "Positive, in fact, I checked it three times." he held up one of his hands.

"Jim, check, he's in prison block Alpha 2." Forge said.

Max's father, Jim, typed quickly and pulled up a page that showed the types of energies in the cell.

"Mother of Mars!" Ferrus ran his real hand through his graying hair while looking at the screen in front of him.

"Good eye Steel, it's faint but it's there. It's almost like when you use all of your turbo energy reserves, Max."

"Max, where did you leave that girl? Claire?" Commander Ferrus asked.

"We took her to the medical ward, she had a compound fracture in her arm." Steel said.

"She had a compound fracture and she was still standing?" Forge yelled.

"Steely girl…" Jim muttered under his breath, returning to the device.

"You should have seen her take down Uncle Ferrus, she didn't even move a muscle!" Max said.

Forge buried his head in his hand, then spoke. "Both of these individuals are dangerous. Max, Steel, I want you to stay with her until this gets sorted out. Don't let her out of your sight!"

"Alright, and if she asks to be with him?" Steel said.

"No! Under no circumstances are those two to be together!"

"You heard what she said, do you really think that's the best Idea?" Max asked.

"You have your orders." He said, ending the conversation.

Max and Steel walked out of the room, Steel replaced his helmet and they walked to the medical ward. She was sitting in one of the chairs, just sitting there content. With a broken arm.

"Uh, hey Claire." Max said as he walked in.

"So I'm curious, how was it you were able to drag Forge back after he had walked away, without moving at all? No one stands up to Forge Ferrus." Steel said.

"I'm not inclined to answer any of your questions until I'm in the same room with Jim." She said, staring at Steel, her posture in the chair was slouched and she held her broken arm in the other.

"Uh, sorry. Forge forbade it." Max said.

Claire had an angry look on her face for a brief moment, then it turned to a small evil grin. "Alright, Fine" she said. "I'll just wait here. He's in a prison cell I assume? And with high tech gear… I'm thinking it's gotta be force-fields. I hope the things in his path from there to here aren't too expensive. Maybe the guards are smarter than your uncle and will actually get out of the way, so you know. He doesn't shred them to pieces." Her small grin grew into a wicked smile. "Oh also, you don't have any doctors in here." She stated matter-of-factly.

Jim woke on the floor with blurry eyes, but quickly got to his feet. He'd expected he was going to wake up in the middle of the Copper Canyon desert, but this was far from it. He was in a square room, small, with blindingly bright lights. There were three walls and one energy wall?

Quickly noticing something was missing, he did a full 360 looking for Claire. Then he yelled, "Claire!" He lifted his nose, testing the air. She was somewhere in the building, but not close.

His heart rate increased and he felt his ears twitching. His tail snaked around behind him wildly.

He looked at the seemingly invisible wall, and tested it with the tip of his tail. A small zap ran through his body and he snarled. Getting angrier by the second.

Claire wasn't with him, she was with strangers. And she was hurt, Jim tested the air again. She was with the people who hurt her. Jim's eyes dialated to barely visible slits.

Wordlessly he summoned the Eclipse armor and dug the tip of his sword into the small riser producing the electrifying field that divided him and Claire. Then he drug it along the base watching as wires and circuits broke creating small electric pops. Alarms sounded throughout the building, Jim had to flatten his ears against his head to block them out.

He heard the silent buzz of the force field failing and stepped out. Guards came rushing at him, he shithed Eclipse and charged at his assailents on all fours. He growled and snarled wildly. He rammed his head into the first, knocking one over behind him. Then as another came at him with some sort of gun, he did a butterfly kick and knocked them out cold. He ran out of the hallway to find a room full of alarms and red lights flashing at him. He ripped the door out of the frame and threw it behind him. On the other side were a barrage of soldiers with more guns aimed for him.

He lowered to all fours and backed up slowly to get a running start, then charged. small green bursts of light came at him. The ones that hit his armor did nothing, the ones that landed on his face only stung a bit. He rammed into the first row then jumped the rest entirely, landing skillfully on the other side of the wall of people meant to keep him in.

He turned and ran on two legs down the hallway, sniffing the air to find Claire. He wished the alarms would shut off because it would be easier to find her if he could hear her. He picked up her scent, and one other. The one who he had fought back in the desert… he jumped into a four legged run and followed her scent.

He ran through some hallways, knocking out anyone who saw him. He exited the hallways and found himself in a large hollowed out mountain, with aircraft and tanks. As he ran, one of the tanks fired, and managed to hit him.

Jim let out a deafening blood curdling roar of pain. Than as the tank began to prepare for another shot, he unsheathed Eclipse and sliced it in half, just like he had done with the flying truck. He let Eclipse go into thin air as he ran into another set of hallways, Claire's scent was getting stronger.

He turned the corner and faced an older man with a robotic arm, holding a large shoulder cannon, grinning. Jim stopped in his tracks and stood hunched, eyes focused. The fur on the back of his neck raised. In one swift movement, he summoned his sword and sliced the barrel of the gun off, and kept running.

He finally found the room Claire's scent was coming from, and she was in there with the person from the desert, he snarled and kicked the door open. He bounded into the room, glancing around. It was large, and clean, mostly empty. The far wall was lined with hightech cupboards, he spotted some standard medical tools on the counter. The rest of the room only had a few chairs strewn around randomly, Jim noticed that at some point the alarms had shut off.

Then he spotted Claire, sitting calmly in a chair. Her eyes lit up when his met hers. He smiled, but the new and familiar scent kept him from going to meet her. He turned to see the strangely suited man and a flying robot. He lowered himself to attack when Claire stopped him.

"Babe, this is Max, and Steel. Please don't maim them." She smiled, and said it as if she were asking him to pass the salt. Jim relaxed slightly standing tall, his ears slightly perked up. He turned back to Claire who had a slightly evil smile, and was cradling her bloodied broken arm.

Jim snarled at them, with an equally evil glare. "Hi, I'm Jim."

He turned and walked to Claire, and nuzzled her head and cheek, she nuzzled him back. Receiving weird looks from the other two in the room. A glare quickly shut them down.

"You ok Claire?" he said in a soft and kind tone.

She nodded, "Yeah, I'm fine. These people seem to think your dangerous. For some reason." She rolled her eyes and smiled at him, he laughed.

"Oh, is that why they knocked us out of the sky directly over a canyon then shot me and kidnapped you?" He growled, laughing angrily.

The robot began to object but Claire immediately cut him off.

"Just some misunderstandings, Jim. I'm fairly sure they aren't actively seeking to destroy us." She said. Jim only gave a low growl.

"No, I'm pretty sure my uncle is planning to kill you after all of the damage you did to the new N-tech base." Max said.

"But do not worry. Most of his anger is just because he got told by a teenage girl!" Steel laughed.

"If you ask me, he destroyed his own base. I told you guys like six times." Claire said. "But he had to insist on keeping me away from Jim for some reason."

"He's just stubborn like that." Max shrugged, then turned to Jim. "So, uh, what are you?" he asked tentatively, with a grimace on his face.

Jim's head whipped around to look at him. He glared for a moment. He dismissed his armor, Max tilted his head, unsure. Placing the amulet back in his pocket, he crouched down next to Claire. They both knew they couldn't escape without hurting Claire's arm further, or until it was in a cast. He would just have to wait.

"Well?" Steel asked.

"I don't feel like sharing with the person who broke my mate's arm." Jim growled, his pupils thinned for a moment. His tail wrapped around Claire's ankle. She smiled at all his actions.

"I'm sorry your what?" Max spat.

"My. Mate." Jim growled his words. "You broke her arm, and what's worse you could have killed her. So I don't feel inclined to share any of my information with you."

"Also, we don't really trust people whose face we can't see." Claire said in an equally menacing tone.

"Ever heard of a secret identity?" Max said.

"You know Max, they actually have a point." Steel chimed.

"Shut it bucket head." Max snapped back.

Steel rolled his eyes and sent a blast of energy at Max's foot. Max jumped, "Ouch! What was that for?"

Steel sighed and folded his arms, "I apologize for my less intelligent counterpart. And if you promise to keep his/our secret, I will gladly remove the helmet."

"Trust me, we can keep secrets." Claire smiled with an eye roll. Jim squeezed her ankle with his tail, and gave a silent scoff.

"Fantastic!" Steel flew at Max and disappeared into his armor. A moment later, with a flash of blue, a young man stood in a blue jacket and genes. He had spiky side-swept brown hair and bright blue eyes. And other than the build, stronger jawline, and hair, he looked slightly like Jim, but only a little.

Max looked up at them sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Oh my gosh, he looks kinda like you!" Clare shouted to Jim.

Steel looked back and forth between the two boys. "I'm sorry I don't see the resemblance."

"Yeah, I look nothing like… you." Max said warily gesturing at Jim.

"She means before I looked like this, about two months ago." Jim said flatly.

"Your build is a bit more square that Jim's was, and your jawline more pronounced. And Jim's hair was, well still is, black. But it's the eyes…" she trailed off.

"Wait back up…" Max said, holding his hands in front of himself. "What do you mean, about two months ago? Did you not always look like a…"

"Monster?" Jim spat the word as if it were poison, and growled. Claire glared at Max, then moved off her chair and sat on Jim's right leg, his tail moved around behind him and took gentle support over Claire's broken arm. Claire whispered to Jim, almost in audible.

'We might want to keep them busy. At least until I get a cast.' Jim nodded, then turned to Max.

"No, Max. I didn't always look like this. I was about three heads shorter and a had a few less appendages. I also wasn't blue… In a word, you could say I was human." Jim looked at the confused pair of boy and robot.

"He's got you beat Max, he was human more human than you!" Steel said.

"Steel." Max whined.

"What?" Steel's face turned to a question mark.

"What does that mean?" Claire asked.

"You see, Max isn't 100% human." Steel explained.

"You look human to me." She said.

"No, he's not." Jim said, sniffing the air, his nose twitched and wrinkled before he spoke. "He smells… off. His scent, it has a metallic smell to it, and he, it almost smells like pure energy."

"Well, that's not weird at all." Max said, feeling a tad self conscious having just been smelled.

"Wow! What do I smell like?" Steel said, flying over.

"About the same. Just no flesh or organs or anything a supposed human would have."

"Cool…" Steel said.

"So, if you're not all human, what are you?" Claire asked.

"I'll tell if you tell." Max said.

"Jim, you good with that?"

"Yeah, It's not like we're going anywhere." he shrugged.

"So, I'm half alien. Or, half Tachyon. My dad is from a different planet, so, yeah, half alien." Max said rubbing the back of his neck.

Jim and Claire stared at him for a moment, then Jim shook his head.

"It's not as bad as this." He gestured to himself. "At least people don't run screaming when they see you. OR capture you and lock you up."

"I guess that would be… problematic." Steel said. Jim raised an eyebrow at him.

"So, I'm half alien. Jim, what are you." Max asked eagerly.

"I'm half troll." Jim said, his nose twitched at the scent of Claire's blood on her arm. His ears twitched as he had to restrain himself from cleaning the wound.

"Half… troll?" Max deadpanned.

"I would say that trolls don't exist, but I don't know what else to call you." Steel said.

Jim rolled his eyes, and was just starting to relax. Max and Steel were alright, but he picked something up from outside in the hallway. Claire took notice of his stillness.

"Jim what is it?" Claire asked.

Jim didn't answer, he swiftly picked Claire up as carefully as he could. Her broken arm secure in his tail. He ran to the other side of the room to the wall with the door. Summoning his armor, he moved his shield to cover Claire, all in seconds. Then an explosion came through the door.

He heard Max calling out "Steel!"

"I'm on it Max." Steel's voice called.

Jim's ears were ringing. And Claire was curled up tightly in his arms, tears of pain ran down her face once again. He smelled fresh blood coming from the break in the skin the bone had left. And all Jim could do was snarl protectively, in the arm he held her his shield blocked her from any potential threats. In his other he held Daylight.

Max didn't know what had happened. Jim was just sitting still then he grabbed the girl and ran past. Before he could do anything, let alone turn around, the door was blown off its hinges, and an explosion followed. The chairs in the room were thrown all over, and dark ash smudges were left on the ground.

Max and Steel joined, and he was back in the now visible Steelsuit. The blast had singed half the room, but nothing was on fire. He noticed a faint blue glow in the corner of his eye. Then spun around to see Jim, in silver and blue armor. Claire was cradled carefully in his arm, and in the other he held a gigantic sword. The sword seemed to be smoking with blue energy.

In the back of his head he heard Steel's voice. "Max, his Turbo energy readings just jumped!"

"Not our biggest concern right now Steel."

"Right. What's our biggest concern?"

"The explosion, Steel. What caused the explosion?"

"Oh, that. Give me a sec." Steel paused. "Alright, it was a N-tech standard infiltration missile. Not meant to do damage, just disorent."

"What? Why?" Max screamed. Before Steel could answer, a barrage of N-tech agents lead by Forge came stomping into the room, surrounding Jim and Claire.

He watched as Jim put Clare down, she winced when her arm was jared. Jim, lowered himself into a more defensive position, his sword in both hands, and it's tip pointed to Forge. Jim snarled and bared his teeth, making Ferrus jump back a bit. Jim's tail moved swayed aggressively behind him.

"Mother of Mars!" Forge muttered.

"You got lucky the first time, but you're not taking me again!" Jim growled.

The commander's eyes were blown wide upon hearing Jim speak. "That thing can talk?" he yelled.

Max and Steel watched Jim flinch at being called a thing. And Claire's eyes turned a violent deep purple. And Forge let out a yelp.

They turned to see Forge's fake arm completely crushed, and unattached from his body, smoking on the ground. He looked at the prosthetic then back to Claire a few times.

"I told you not to call him that. Next time, listen to me, or it might be something not as replaceable." She said darkly.

"Alright everyone, let's calm down. There's no need to fight…" Max started.

"Stay out of this Max!" His uncle yelled, then pulled out his energy sword.

"No, uncle Ferrus, you need to stop!" He begged.

Forge ignored him and ran at Jim with his sword. As he sung it he held only the hilt and pommel, the cross guard lay on the ground sparking, without a blade. Jim had quickly disarmed him without even trying. He looked at the piece of tech then threw it aside scowling.

Jim grinned at the man's displeasure with eyebrows furrowed. "That was a sorry excuse for a sword. And you're a sorry excuse for a swordsman." he let out a low growl.

Forge pulled out a small pistol type thing and shot it at Jim. the first tranquilizer dart bounced harmlessly of his neck. Then another off his cheek, one grazed his horn. "What in the world?" He gasped.

"That's a cute toy, now back off." Jim snarled, getting inches from the commander's face. He dwarfed him.

Forge stepped back, and glanced around him, he noticed Claire still standing behind Jim cradling her arm, then grinned.

Max watched his uncle lunge past Jim and grabbed the girl's arm, pulling her in front of himself. She cried out in pain at the sudden movement. Steel flew out of his chest and over to Forge.

"What are you doing!?" Steel cried.

Ferrus ignored him and stared Jim down. Claire held tightly against his armored chest. "Stand down!" He yelled.

Jim looked around, all the guns were trained on him. The man Steel had called Forge, was holding Claire tightly, and painfully against his chest-plate. She was facing Jim her cheeks covered in tears. But her eyes spelled determination, she subtly nodded at Jim and waited.

Jim sheathed Daylight, and allowed his hunter side to take over. He paced on all fours, his tail whipped around violently, waiting for the right moment to attack. His ears twitched when he heard Claire speak.

"You," she gasped. "Are the stupidest human I have ever met!" she yelled. "I know rocks that are smarter than you." Jim's lips upturned slightly, knowing full well that it was true.

"Uncle Ferrus, are you even seeing what you're doing?" Max yelled but was ignored.

"Tell the creature to stand down." he yelled at Claire.

"Even if I wanted to, I can't." Claire breathed.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Forge yelled again.

"Look, even if he wanted to 'stand down', he couldn't. His instincts aren't something you want to get on the wrong side of. And right now, you're holding me, his injured mate, hostage." Claire watched Jim stalk back and forth, then he let his armor fall. His growling and snarls grew louder and more violent, and his eyes dilated into thin slits.

"What just happened?" Max asked.

Claire let a wicked grin grow on her face. "He dismissed his armor, it curbs his… farrell behavior. Makes him less, animalistic." Claire said to no one in particular, then directed her voice to the man holding her hostage with one very strong arm, "He's going to shred you if you don't let me go." she spoke.

"Forge, let Claire go." Steel said.

Ferrus' head twitches to the side for just the briefest of moments. Using his brief distraction, Claire's eyes flashed purple and smoke filled the room.

Jim immediately set off taking out the guards one by one, knocking them out. The smoke was thick enough he couldn't even see. Using his hearing and sense of smell he guided himself toward each guard, and incapacitating them. He decided to leave Max and Steel alone, they weren't the problem, they were (sort of) trying to help.

He sniffed the air and listened for Claire's heartbeat. He ran to her and gave a low whine. Claire picked up on his presence and with a flash of purple visible through the smoke, the thick fogy substance disappeared.

The commander was now faced with Jim, standing at his full height snarling down at him. Forge had to crane his neck to see Jim. When he did, he paled considerably.

Jim grabbed the man's forearm and pulled it away from Claire, using his tail, he pulled her to his side. Then in a deep menacing growl, spoke to the commander.

"Try something like that again and this won't be all that breaks." Jim lowered himself to the commander's eye level and tightened his grip around the man's arm, Forge tried to keep his gaze, but couldn't as he began to grunt in pain. Jim kept tightening until he felt the distinct snap of a bone. Then let his grip go.

Forge collapsed and clutched his arm letting out an unmanly yelp as he fell. Max and Steel just stood (and hovered) shaking their heads at the disheveled man.

"What the hell are you?" The Commander yelled at Jim as he stared down at the pitiful lump on the floor.

"A Hunter." Jim snarled.

Hello lovelies,

This will not be updated regularly, just a heads up. I don't know very many people in this fandom, let alone in both, so let's see how this goes. This shouldn't interrupt anything else I'm doing. And for those of you reading Speed and Stone, this is the next in the set with more crossovers to come. I'll be utilizing these specific characters of Jim and Claire for this string of crossovers that will include a number of fandoms. you can even request if you would like and I'll see what I can do.

This gem came to me a while back and I didn't know if I should post it or not, but just know that it will be a long runner. I'm not entirely sure if all concepts from this work will be incorporated into the others but if you guys like it then I probably will.

Again, this will not be updated regularly, but, the next episode of Speed and Stone should be out shortly.

I own nothing.