If you could see underneath the helmet Max had on, you would see his fangs were fully on display as another huge grin stretched across his face.
He reached into his sea of soul and summoned another unused Beast Soul that he had received on his first day in the Super God Gene Jump, one that had also been evolved via his replica of the black crystal, voraciously absorbing whatever essence or power the crystal harnessed to evolve Beast Souls, until the Porsche surpassed every limit of what a car could be.
With a flash of brilliant, hyper-dense light, the aggressively styled Porsche 993 materialized in the air directly around him, in better than pristine shape.
It was still a masterpiece of classic Earth engineering, even though you could now say it had been reborn through evolutionary power. The Porsche's oversized fenders flared violently over extra-wide racing slicks, its front splitters now actually sharp and tough enough to slice through literal armor.
Max sighed comfortably in the racing bucket; like any good Beast Soul, the car had conformed to its user's body shape. From now on, he could perfectly fit into the driver's seat, no matter his size.
Despite Max's intent to interfere in a space battle as a Surpasser, there was no need for oxygen lines or spacesuits. Normally, only beings on the level of True Gods or Demi-Gods could survive the unforgiving void of space in the Super God Gene universe.
Anyone lower would instantly succumb to the lethal radiation, pressure drops, and zero atmosphere.
However, Max wasn't guessing or taking a blind gamble. Long before this moment, he had used his [Destiny] ability to run a series of simulated futures, essentially using his precognition as a private sandbox to test his limits.
He had literally watched his own simulated body fly into the vacuum of space multiple times just to see what would happen. Through those trial runs, he confirmed that with his current physique, the passive [Environmental Tolerance] ability gained via his Jumper body, and the fully realized powers of Magneto backing him, surviving the void wouldn't be a problem.
Max had already done the homework, suffered one or two simulated deaths out of a curiosity involving his limits, and mastered the physics required to make the cosmos his playground by utilizing [Instinct] during his simulations.
He extended his mind outward, instantly gripping every single atom of the vehicle's exotic metals. With a thought, he manipulated the magnetic fields surrounding the vehicle, creating an airtight, pressurized magnetic bubble inside the cockpit.
Max was obviously more than pleased that he could survive the harsh environment of space just fine on raw durability alone, thanks to his current physique and the [Environmental Tolerance] ability. However, he needed the oxygen regardless—otherwise, there would be no medium for the sound waves to travel, and he wouldn't be able to hear any tunes blasting from his Beast Soul speaker.
Even if he couldn't survive naked in space, his Flux Armor and Flux Helmet Beast Souls already provided an unlimited supply of fresh air when equipped, a handy new function the helmet had received after getting some sweet Black Crystal love.
The unique alloys and substances now woven into the Porsche Beast Soul vibrated with raw, unstoppable kinetic potential under Max's command.
"Let's see how these Shura dick bags handle some real horsepower," Max muttered, his fingers wrapping around the steering wheel, even though he didn't need it to steer while flying it around at all.
'Music cue,' Max commanded with a thought. His little black rectangle Beast Soul responded immediately, floating quickly from its spot beside him to the rear window of the Porsche.
'I was feeling "Full Moon" earlier but that was for swordplay and such...Oh I know, how about some Metallica!'
Moments later, an aggressive voice began to sing.
"Gimme fuel, gimme fire, gimme that which I desire, OOH!"
"Oh yeah! Let's go!"
He jammed his foot down on the pedal as soon as the instruments kicked in. The engine didn't rev as Max hadn't bothered turning the motor over at all—but still, the Porsche unleashed a terrifying, metallic roar that vibrated right through the atmosphere.
Using his magnetic manipulation as a localized gravitational slingshot, Max gripped the metal hull of an Alliance cruiser miles above him and pulled. The 993 shot forward like a railgun slug. It didn't need roads where he was going!
Max created a shifting track of invisible, polarized magnetic energy in front of the tires on his way to the battlefield, letting the Porsche grip the empty air and pull off a flawless, tire-smoking drift right over the curvature of the upper atmosphere, pulling more Gs than a fighter pilot would.
The car then straightened out and tore through the thermosphere, blurring into a streak of silver and purple-pink neon light. Within seconds, the atmosphere thinned out completely, and the Porsche broke into the silent vacuum of space. Directly ahead, the orbital warzone erupted in full view.
Max's eyes grew wide in excitement, he was considering this upcoming fight as practice. It would be his first real crack at larger scale space combat, and he was eager to get some experience before he reached his final goal one day, The Legendary Mechanic universe, where battles like this went down all the time.
Massive Shura battleships, intimidating, sharp, and angular, were trading catastrophic plasma fire with the Alliance's sleek star-cruisers. Max's eyes locked onto a forward squadron of Shura fighter ships intercepting an Alliance transport.
Three Shura fighters noticed the bizarre silver anomaly in turn and broke formation, diving straight toward him with their plasma cannons glowing a deadly, charging red.
...
Max ripped through the orbital warzone, the Porsche 993 screaming a metallic roar across its pressurized chassis as it drifted through clusters of plasma fire and lasers, with a hand full of occasional shots bouncing harmlessly off of Max's electromagnetic shield.
He was straight-up space-dogfighting in a German sports car, and Max couldn't get over how badass this was!
With casual waves of his hand, he sent high-frequency electromagnetic blasts curving through the vacuum, detonating smaller Shura fighters before they could even lock onto him.
When the interceptors managed to get close, he didn't even bother blowing them up—he simply extended his magnetic grip into the biological side of things, and violently agitated the metallic iron in the Shura pilots' bloodstream or fried their brains directly, destroying their physical bodies inside their own cockpits.
All the while, a fraction of his mind remained anchored miles below. A massive dome of hyper-dense electromagnetic energy and the scattered God Dust supporting it pulsed over the city's teleportation station, effortlessly shielding the Alliance's vital escape lifeline from orbital bombardment.
Beside him in the cabin, his toolkit floated in zero-G: his twin Beast Soul Twin Talons, his ever-trusty Cursed Wolf Dagger, and of course, the black rectangle speaker vibrating the car-turned-starfighter with heavy metal.
Suddenly, a sleek, corvette-sized Shura warship around 150 meters long cut through the smoke of an explosion, its heavy plasma and laser batteries rotating toward him. Max grinned, flooring the gas pedal out of habit and aiming the nose of the Porsche directly at their reinforced bridge.
Inside the Shura ship, the bridge crew went into a panicked frenzy. "What is that strange Alliance fighter doing?!" the Shura captain, another golden horned Shura, roared, staring at the quickly incoming silver silhouette on the viewscreen. "Sir! It's not slowing down! It's a suicide run!"
At the absolute last second, right before a catastrophic impact, Max smiled. With a mental flick, the Porsche instantly dissolved into a brilliant shower of golden sparkles, returning back into his sea of soul.
In that same microsecond, Max's armor and equips reacted to his thoughts. The Beast Soul speaker mounted itself longways onto his back at the top of his spine, his armor panels slickly parting to create a secure dock, the speakers facing Max's back to vibrate the music straight through his skeleton.
The Twin Talons zipped through the vacuum, magnetically locking themselves against the backs of his hips. Max shot upward through the void, clearing the nose of the oncoming warship.
"Mwah-ha-ha!"
He let loose a wicked laugh at the absolute horror on the Shura bridge crew's faces as he flew past their reinforced glass.
The Cursed Wolf Dagger lodged itself into place in his right hand and was then pointed downwards. Instantly, a condensed, fiercely humming pillar of electromagnetic energy enveloped the blade.
Max slammed his boots onto the hull of the corvette and sprinted.
Moving at blinding, superhuman speeds, he ran the entire length of the spaceship, dragging the energized dagger behind him. The blade sliced through the super-alloy hull like a hot wire through wax, cleanly cutting the corvette down the middle as he flashed by.
Before the two halves of the ship could even drift apart, Max leapt off the rear of the ship. Behind him, the corvette erupted into a massive, blinding explosion.
Max didn't slow down. Tucking his knees to his chest, he began to do frontwards-rolls with the glowing blade, turning into a lethal, wheel-like blur, just like Sonic the Hedgehog. He tore through a formation of enemy fighters, slicing them into smoking wreckage.
The disabled Shura ships careened wildly out of control, crashing into other enemy fighters while miraculously veering clear of any Alliance craft, courtesy of [Domino].
He stopped spinning but continued shooting forwards while extending his left hand, oversized 'lightsaber' trailing behind him like a comet's tail.
'To me, my 993!'
The silver Porsche flashed back into existence, directly beneath his boots this time. Max magnetically anchored his feet to the roof, his momentum instantaneously transferring to the Beast Soul as it perfectly matched his blistering speed.
Standing tall, arms balanced, he coasted through the stars riding the Porsche as if he was the Silver Surfer himself!
The Cursed Wolf Dagger vanished back into his sea of soul. In a flash, Max drew the Twin Talons from his hips, leveled the barrels at the remaining Shura fleet, and let the rail cannons sing!