23 Chapter 18: A Former Emperor’s Story (R)

It happened after I turned thirteen, the ultralinks invaded again. They were even more advanced and stronger than before. It turns out their creator just used us as testing grounds for his creations and we made them better without even realizing it. We fought and fought until only a few were left by this point I had already been crowned Ma'ex of Takion by my father before he injected himself with a drug that turned him into an atomic bomb. He and his knights all detonated giving us a brief reprieve one which we used to try and evacuate as many citizens as possible.

That was when I met him, the reincarnation of my friend and the one whom helped us gain a fighting chance. That's when I met Steel, a year after on a secluded battlefield with the body of a xenoshok on the ground and my energem enhanced armour on my body passively utilizing the TURBO energy generated by me. "Why are you attacking us? We have never antagonised your people," I asked him, and he responded, "We attack to absorb and expand for Makino's glory." I laughed at that before shouting back at him "There is no glory in abruptly attacking a race that has done you no wrong!"

The ultralink murmurs to himself before another xenoshok surfaces catching me by surprise. It turns to attack me and would have succeeded too if the ultralink didn't bond with me at that moment. Small hexagons formed around me in a sphere like shape around my body the navy blue colour letting me know it was formed from my TURBO energy. The wave released killed the xenoshok similar to how EMP's kill electronics and I landed on the ground in an armoured suit I couldn't see.

Then the memories came, and I realized the ultralink was my friend from my past life, the one who reincarnated alongside me. I think he figured it out too because his voice immediately sounded out ^You know when I said I would be okay being a sentient weapon you could use this isn't what I had in mind. ^ That drew laughter from me, that plus the joy of being reunited with my friend put a smile on my face. 

"By the way what is your name now," I ask with joy. ^N'Baro Aksteel x007,^ I laugh again. "Then that means your Steel and since I'm Ma'ex I'm Max," my smile grows wider when I voiced my conclusion. N'Baro's following words echo my thoughts exactly, ^Then we are most definitely going by Max Steel when in this form.^ N'Baro's continuous chattering put a smile on my face. I was glad to see him happy considering the fact that he didn't want a human or biological body again due to trauma and out of fear of getting sick like in our past life.

Suddenly the lights on the suits HUD became red and my smile was wiped off. Looking at the image only one thing left my mouth, "We just reunited and now we're fucking dead, aren't we?" the worry in my tone of voice clear to all who heard. ^That's the Alphalink, we still have sometime to evacuate before it completely devours the planet,^ N'Baro quickly tells me.

Sighing in relief I start running in the direction of the palace. The palace was the most fortified and had a lot of important things. Not to mention the number of people, animals and the codex like device placed there. What, I'm allowed to rip off and replicate Kryptonian tech from time to time, especially with an excuse like we can use it to recreate our population after the war.

With my mind in sync with my brother from another mother or is it brother from the production line a jet pack is created, and I fly through the fighter and raider ultralinks destroying them with my powered-up blaster. After landing I quickly walk to the command center having Steel remove the helmet of the suit. 

"Order a retreat we are evacuating the planet, take everything we can leave the criminals who have a life sentence for extreme crimes and all those whose bioenergy has gone negative," I take a deep breath glaring at those who seemed that they wanted to protest. "They have a planet eater, and it won't be long before it's here according to my reprogrammed friend at least." 

That put things into perspective for them, leading to them quickly following my orders ignoring the ultralink I now carried with me. "When the palace is over run, and the planet is in the process of being devoured…blow up the grid lines." All of those in the room look at me with widened eyes, a couple of them even seemed about to cry, but they all nodded the same. 

"Don't worry as long as the core technology is safe, we can still survive and restart." At my words determination was etched into their faces as numerous voices resounded, orders being given, and actions taken to complete the evacuation as soon as possible. Within a few hours we began boarding the Zeo Ark, a massive mothership that ran on the energy granted by a giant Zeo crystal. An endless clean energy source fueled by the Energia grid.

"Make sure the ship has enough escape pods just in case and do bio energy checks before boarding, I'll go provide a distraction. Leaving my orders, I bond with N'Baro and head to the battlefield, "Steel, lets do something crazy," I say with a smile on my face. "What do you have in mind," he replies. I send him an image causing an outburst, "You are fucking crazy, but that's why we are such a good team." I laugh at that, "I have to abuse the imagination perk of our combined powers after all."

"So, what should we call this form because it won't be as powerful as you want it to be, we aren't at that level yet," he reminds me. "We'll call it Drake mode then, just make it as close and sustainable as possible, then we'll go on a rampage." Steel chuckles at that before the hexagon shapes appear again and the suits shift. 

After the transformation I stand on the battlefield in a suit that resembles a dragon but isn't exactly draconic, the energy wings at my back similar in style to Mercy's but more batlike with claws on my fingers and floating orbs that acted as blasters. Giving the order to retreat I go to the battlefield decimating all the subpar ultralinks on the battlefield. They were all Stinger Ultralinks, Drone Ultralinks, Fighter Ultralinks and Raider Ultralinks. 

It was a massacre, I ripped through them all with my claws occasionally firing blasts of pure turbo energy and not caring about defense. Not long after I was watching the planet be devoured on the motherships bridge. "We'll get stronger and then we'll take back what has been lost, this I promise as the Ma'ex of the Takonian empire," I tell the people with me on the bridge. "Blow up the grid," I walk into my quarters after that.

(The Milano, Peter Quill POV)

In a rare show of being a good captain I decide to check on everyone on the ship. Who am I kidding I'm just bored and looking to see if anyone is up for some fun considering I have nothing better to do and Gamora is giving me the cold shoulder currently. While walking towards the cabins I stop when Gamora comes to mind.

'The new guy seems to be the most normal, maybe I should ask him for advice about my love life.' I then head towards his room, entering inside I see him tossing and turning with sweat pouring off him. My face blanching, I immediately go call for help, I'm not good with this kind of shit.