Max Steel: Redux is a rewrite of the 2000 Max Steel TV series. The story starts off with the flashback from episode three, expanding upon the events that happened before diving in to the main story.
Plans are for a four-book series with book 1 largely following the events of season 1, season 2 being split between books 2 and 3, and season 3 being the first half of book 4.
The story is currently ongoing, being updated every other Friday, and could be found at FN and AO3.
Spoilers for unpublished chapters below, read at your own risk.
Max Steel: Redux provides examples of:
- Adaptation Expansion: The original canon was 35 30-minute episodes (minus adverts). To cover the events in the flashbacks of season 1, episode 3 (which take approximately ten minutes), the author writes 30k words. This is, however, due to massive expansion on what actually happened. The episode shows events from Josh's point of view, from chasing the intruder down to introducing himself as Max Steel, while the story:
- Introduces us to Rachel and what she was doing during the whole break-in
- Introduces agents (both old and new) and/or expands on their role from the show (Jake Nez, Angel Grantham, Travis Murtaugh, Melody Cherabi, Tyler Antebi, Carlos Ramirez, Charles "Chuck" Marshak, Kat Ryan, Leila Cossan)
- Introduces us to Jefferson Smith, his background/history, and also does a short flashback to events fifteen years prior (as it's mirroring events occuring present-day in the story)
- Goes through in more detail the explanation about N-Tek's real side
- Introduces new scientists and medical staff (Jessica Palmieri, Mohammed Vadher, Anthony Devoe)
- Expands upon the capabilities Josh now has in regards to the nanoprobes (enhanced speed, strength, healing, hearing) including scientific testing and a report read by Rachel
- The creation of Max Steel
- Introducing Josh to Rachel and the official creation of Team Steel
- Establishing Character Moment: For various characters:
- Berto: Hurrying to try and find any information he can to save Josh's life. A later scene has him come up with the idea to douse Josh in transphasic energy which does save his life.
- Rachel: Commanding a group of agents to search for the two intruders. Shows vast knowledge of people at INTEC and those related as she immediately knows that one of the intruders is Josh McGrath.
- Kat: Challenges Max to a sparring match and easily bests him.
- Josh: Takes off after an intruder without knowing who they are, what they want, or even notifying police or anyone at N-Tek.
- Jefferson: Being locked in the CEO's office for his own protection, highlighting just how important he is and foreshadowing the chaos when he has a heart attack in chapter 7.
- First-Episode Twist: Josh McGrath gets infected with nanoprobes, setting off a chain reaction which results in him gaining superhuman strength, speed, sound, and sight; the ability to create one (or more, it's never stated he can create more, but never stated he can't) physical secret identities; finds out sports company N-Tek is a front for counter-terrorism group INTEC and that both of his fathers (biological father Jim and adoptive father Jefferson) work(ed) for them; and officially joins as an agent. All of this happens in the first four chapters,but try explaining the story without spoiling any of this (even the writer herself spoils this in summaries of the story).
- In Medias Res: The story starts off with knowledge of a break-in, but we don't initially know who or why (the who gets answered shortly, the why takes a little while). We then go back an hour where we follow the two people prominent in the opening scene (Rachel and Josh) and get more information on just what has been going on.
- Improbable Age: Berto Martinez, explicitly stated to be eighteen at the start of the story. He has degrees in microbiology and cybernetics & nanotechnology, and holds a PhD in nanotechnology at this young age. Oftentimes (more common later in the story) other characters will bow to his knowledge on nanoprobes and the running of Max's system.
- Nanomachines: Naturally, given that the main character has billions of these in his biological system.
- O.C. Stand-in: There are a small number of agents in the original series given family names, and a couple of those given on-screen appearances. In the fic, they're given full names, code names, and we see them in action during one point or another.
- Original Character: By the nature of the original show, a necessity for the expanded story.
- Part-Time Hero: Josh McGrath
- Phlebotinum Battery: Max's abilities are powered by transphasic energy. When he runs low he loses his various abilities (super speed, super strength) but when it gets too low...
- Phlebotinum Dependence: he runs the risk of dying. He initially despises this, feeling like a drug addict, especially as it means one of his main hobbies (extreme sports) is now out of reach as he can't compete on a level playing field. Over time, however, while his dependancy doesn't change, Berto does help him to work through his inability to switch "off" his abilities.
- Phlebotinum Muncher: Not Max directly, but it has been stated that the nanoprobes which sustain his life "feed" on transphasic energy.
- Rookie Red Ranger: Josh McGrath/Max Steel, naturally being the title character. He gets inducted into Team Steel behind Rachel (seven years of experience) and Berto Martinez (approximately six months).
- Super Wrist-Gadget: Initially references as a "multifunctional, wrist-linked monitoring device", Max's Bio-Link can communicate back to the console in the ops room, communicate to any other agent (via being patched through), activate Max's super-strength, stealth mode, infra-red vision, and numerous other options. Its main function at the beginning was a monitoring device to check how much transphasic energy he had left in reserve.
