Generator Rex Generations

by dragonsroar

A bold new world is blossoming with the advent of cybernetic technologies. But the lines between man and machine will be blurred and new characters take the stage and shape the future.

1. Renegade

Generator Rex Generations

Episode 1

"Renegade"

Okay, so here we go. You probably already know who I am and what I do but just incase you've forgotten or been living under a rock let me clue you in. The names Rex Salazar, also known under the moniker as Generator Rex. I'm the butt-kicking, free-styling, and most awesome living weapon to ever exist on the planet Earth.

Well to be fair I'm probably the only living weapon on Earth but let's not argue semantics.

So anyway, you remember now? You know, the whole "Nanite Event"; the big explosion that spread nanites all over the Earth, the nanoscopic machines that change the biological makeup of stuff. You gotta remember the Evos, most of those are hard to forget. Mostly big monsters with bad attitudes?

I'm sure you do and I'm just spinning my wheels, but a bit of exposition never hurt anyone. You probably also remember how I totally save the world from the Consortium, bunch of rich fogies who wanted to use nanites to rule the Earth as more or less gods incarnate?

Totally kicked their sorry backsides.

They did manage to get away before I released my "Cure Event", a nanite release that transformed every Evo on Earth back to its original form. Yep, after six years of chaos I single-handedly turned everything back to normal… well as normal as things get around here.

So yeah, no more Evos.

Well, maybe a few. A certain mad scientist known as Van Kleiss and his group slipped away like the Consortium did, but without Evo's to control both of them are gonna get it handed to them sooner or later. Although it'll probably be later since right now I'm stuck in this hot as all get out classroom trying to pass this entrance exam.

Wondering why? Well you've probably been thinking that without Evo's around I'm pretty much out of a job. And you'd be right… to a point. Sure, without Evo's I'm not jetting across the world like I was but trust me when I say things are far from boring. Still, I need to do something other than busting heads and it's not a bad idea to try and be a normal kid so that means trying to get into a good school… well, good enough anyway.

I know Doc Holiday would probably want me to aim for one of the prodigious schools and everything, and sure I want to do my best, but I'd rather get into a place where I can actually enjoy myself while I get my academia on.

Ha, didn't think I could use that word in a sentence properly, did you? And I made it sound good. I'm just that awesome. But anyway, enough of the back patting, I need to concentrate.

The sound of pencil hitting paper could be heard as teenagers of all various shapes, sizes, and ethnicities were busily writing on their test papers, their minds alight as they tried to give the best answers they could muster. Of course that's where Rex sat as well, although he had a far less stressful look on his face as did the other hopefuls. He was confident he'd do fine so there was no need to worry.

The fact that he was able to do exposition showed just how confident he felt that he'd pass the test. Still he knew that it would be better to finish things up instead of risking running out of time because he wanted to give some backstory.

He could always finish that up later.

And sure enough, as Rex was finishing the last of the questions on the test a small bell went off, signifying the end of the test-taking period.

"Okay, pencils down, pass exams ahead of you to the front." replied the test proctor, "And no last minute filling in either, that counts as cheating."

There was some moaning and groaned from the assembled teens as many hadn't quite finished yet, though many were just relieved the test was finally over.

Sitting back in his chair Rex bore a big smile, convinced he did well enough for what he was aiming for. He peered out the window, happy for such a nice day and really happy he'd soon be out of the stifling classroom and out and about.

"I should probably head back to base first though. I know Doc Holiday will want to know how things went." he thought.

Doctor Rebecca Holiday, chief researcher officer of the paramilitary group known as Providence because of her extensive knowledge of nanites was also the main caretaker of Rex. Although her relationship with him was far beyond professionalism and at times Rex felt that she acted like she was his mom, with the way she could nag him from time to time.

That didn't mean he hated though. Family was an important thing to Rex and he considered her a part of it without question.

Still, he sometimes wished he wasn't the only one she'd rag on to give it his all. Being an 'only child' could be tough sometimes. Although Rex did have a brother, Caesar Salazar, but Caesar was so high above Rex when it came to intellect that sometimes he felt they were on different planets.

He still wouldn't trade what he had with Caesar for anything so the brothers were still close in some regards.

"I wonder if Holiday will give me the day off considering how hard I worked?" Rex wondered as the roads zipped pass him in a blur as he rode atop his self made vehicle, the Rex Ride.

Rex zipped through the traffic effortlessly as he zoomed down the street, getting the occasional honk or hand wave.

He sometimes wondered though why he didn't get much more attention than that.

"I save the earth and my popularity hardly went up an iota." he thought to himself as he pulled even with a large truck, "You'd think I'd have fans swarming me or something. I mean sure, most people give me a thumbs up or give a good word and that's cool and all but you'd think I'd have celebrity status." he thought, waving to the truck driver as he pulled ahead, "Guess saving the free world from nanite fueled dominion just isn't up to snuff nowadays."

It wasn't as if Rex did what he did for popularity and status, he just wondered that if saving the world wasn't enough to get your face on billboards or staring in your own movie he had to wonder about people's priorities.

"Save the world: Meh, that's good. Reality TV show about how many grapes a guy can fit into his mouth: World Famous." he muttered, "Although I got to admit when he added cherries to the mix that was pretty entertaining."

Despite that little grievance Rex couldn't be happier about how things had turned out. The world was more or less back on track, not having the specter of random Evo incidents to worry about, he got most of his memories back, and everyone he cared for was alive and okay. If that wasn't the start of something new than he didn't know what was.

Soon enough he reached the military outpost that was Providence Base, the massive towering fortress that housed the world's most advance tech and most brilliant scientific minds.

Like Rex many thought that after the Evo's had all be cured and the random outbursts stymied Providence would disband considering its entire creation was to deal with Evos. But others, Providence being at the top of that list, would consider that a misnomer. Providence's job was to deal with nanites, which there were still countless of. Rex might have cured the world of Evos but there was no way to rid the world of nanites. In fact his world-wide cure event actually introduced even more nanites into the atmosphere. They were just all inactive nanites, making them relatively harmless.

But relatively harmless was not completely harmless and all it took was a person dedicated enough to… manipulate them. And sure, even though he wasn't fighting giant monsters anymore he was still battling large threats. It would seem that robotic enemies had taken the place of the organic ones. The world was already highly advanced, what with floating battleships like the Providence Key and fusion drive batteries. It was just that the Nanite Event had everyone's attention on dealing with tiny machines instead of the larger. However after the curing of all Evos the world's focus went back to advancements in technology, particularly the field of cybernetics. It was as if a switch had been flipped and the creation of stronger, faster, and smarter cybernetic creations was in full swing.

"One thing leads to another." thought Rex as he zipped across the large bridge that separated Providence Headquarters from the rest of the city.

The main doors opened for him immediately and he soon found himself in the shaded interior of the base's hanger that stretched across most of its lower level.

Retracting his ride Rex walked through the hanger, spying several Providence operatives going through their daily rounds, be it doing maintenance on Providence's plethora of military vehicles, checking service routes, or even cleaning and detailing weapons, somebody was doing something despite their not being any real urgency in their work. Like Rex, even though there were still threats out there, the soldiers had become more laid-back.

Relatively speaking of course.

At the end of the hall was an elevator which he promptly boarded, pressing one of the floor buttons on the side to take him up to his destination.

On his way up he hummed a little too, something he was prone to do since the elevators didn't have any catchy tunes in them.

He tried to get that changed but things were still pending.

When he reached his floor he stepped out into the main research area. This was where the most general of nanite research was done, as well as leading to other branches through the tower. It was here that he saw Dr. Holiday, busy at work as well. She notice him however and quickly dropped what she was doing to come up to him and ask…

"How was it?"

"I think I passed with flying colors." Rex replied, his usual demeanor showing through.

"Does that mean you passed it with 100% or does that mean you just passed it?"

"What's the difference?" he asked, to which Holiday gave him a look, "Trust me doc, I know I passed it with a high score."

She sighed. Holiday knew that Rex had far more talent intellectually than he showcased. He might not have been up to his brother in the smarts department but he wasn't a joke either. She knew if he really put his mind to it he could ace any test he wanted. But he was a teenager and like most teenagers his mind was on goofing off and enjoying life.

"Well I'm glad you passed." she replied, earning a smile from him, "Although I can't wait to actually see the results to see where you need to… brush up on." she said, earning her a grimace.

"That may have to come later." replied a new voice, that of Agent Six, "Meeting in sit-ops, White Knight's orders."

Always straight-laced in both body and mind it wasn't always easy to tell what the super-human secret agent Six was thinking, but over time he had softened up. However considering his tone he was in duty mode.

"Heh, guess we've finally got a new mission." Rex replied, "Unless White's planning on changing the decor in his office and wants everyone to know. Personally I think he'd be a good with a little fuchsia."

"I doubt it." replied Six, taking off back from where he came, "Let's go."

"Right, right." came Rex, following after with Dr. Holiday in toe.

Trying to get Six to crack a smile sometimes could be a chore. However there were times that he broke from his usual demeanor.

"If anything White would go for a warmer color, like Sunset Red." Six said, never breaking stride.

Rex burst out laughing with a giggling Holiday at his side.

Rex eventually got himself under control upon reaching the command center, the large room with a multitude of monitors and Providence agents at those monitors… monitoring. There was also Bobo Haha, Rex's wise-cracking chimpanzee side-kick. He too seemed to be monitoring a monitor, very astutely in fact.

"Okay, I think I know why White called us here. Bobo is doing work at a console." came Rex, bewilderment across his brow, "You catch some rare disease buddy. I'm not gonna have to put you down old yeller style am I?"

"For you information I'm doing some very delicate and dedicated work using a series of mathematical algorithms to decipher a complex code of numbers." replied the talking chimp.

Rex went slightly pale at that, "Okay, now I know something is seriously wrong with you. You're not a robot or anything are you?"

"After what you do to them? Hardly."

"Then what's up?"

"I told you. I'm immersing myself in some complicated calculations." replied Bobo, looking somewhat smug.

"He's trying to figure out what are the most likely lottery numbers so he can win big." said one of the Providence agents nearby, causing Bobo's smug expressions to drop almost immediately.

"You didn't stop him?" asked Six.

"Could you?"

Six thought about it and realized that unless he had a sword to Bobo's hairy throat he probably couldn't. And even then it wouldn't be easy.

Rex shook his head, "Dude, seriously?"

"What. We hardly even use these things much, so I thought of a meaningful way to put them to good use. Namely making me rich."

Rex rolled his eyes and reached over, grabbing Bobo from his seat. Slightly irate Bobo fought to be free but after seeing Dr. Holiday shut the console down he eventually relented. He bore a somber look on his face as his dreams of making it big were dashed so abruptly.

"I sometimes worry about you Haha." muttered a voice from seemingly nowhere, "You should use your… talents for more worthwhile endeavors."

Soon a form rose from the shadows, revealing a very large, very hairy cat like creature, aptly named Jungle Cat. Like Bobo he was an Evo, as well as being a Providence agent, his specialty being covert operations. He was one of the few Evo's who hadn't been transformed back after Rex's Cure Event had been release. Unlike Bobo though, who had been at the epicenter of the blast and oddly enough avoided the actually 'cure', Jungle Cat's case had been little different.

He had once followed Van Kleiss, loyal and dedicated. But after being betrayed by the madman, and subsequently drained of his nanites he had reverted to a rock form. But for whatever reason Jungle Cat was able to 'reverse' the affliction, at least temporarily. However around the time that Rex had faced off with the Consortium the encapsulation hit back hard and even Jungle Cat was unsure if he'd be able to reverse it. But in a stroke of luck the Cure Event 'cured' him of his affliction, revitalizing his nanites and freeing him from his rocky prison.

It was a strange thing to be sure, even more so when Jungle Cat denied truly being cured.

"I could probably turned you back to normal you know." replied Rex that day, after discovering that Jungle Cat was still an oversized cat creature, "I might not have godly powers anymore but it shouldn't be too hard."

However Jungle Cat held a paw up to stop him, "It's okay. I rather prefer this form. Plus, with no more other Evo's around I have very little competition." he replied.

Rex chuckled at that, "Guess that's true. You know though, save for me."

Jungle Cat gave him a look as if he didn't believe him, "Sure."

"Hey! What's that suppose to mean!?" Rex barked, "Hey! Get back here! What're you saying!?"

Needless to say Jungle Cat became a permanent member of the Providence team. A member that Bobo didn't exactly warm up to.

Bobo turned his lip up at the stalking evo, "Eh cram it you oversized throw rug."

"What's wrong, why so cranky? Not getting enough potassium monkey boy."

"That's chimp man to you kitty commando." grunted Bobo, "Don't you got an appointment with a violin factory?"

A fierce glare dropped on Jungle Cat, which Bobo matched in kind. But before anything could get out of handle Holiday stepped in.

"Enough you two. You definitely have your differences, definitely, but you're teammates now, whether you like it or not so wouldn't it be better to at least try and get along?"

Both animal Evos snorted at one another but didn't reply. Holiday just shook her head.

"Those two are like oil and water." she thought, "Then again it is kinda fun to see someone that can put Bobo in his place from time to time. Even if it might lead to a coming of blows." she thought.

They were still glare something awful at one another but kept apart by Holiday's presence. Fortunately things eventually got back on track when the sound of the main view screen caught their ears and White Knight's face appeared on it.

The leader of Providence, the man in white known as White Knight sat in his sterilized office space. The specialized zone designed to keep him, the only human that had no nanites in his body, nanite free.

"Good, you're all here. Then we can get straight to business."

"What no 'Hi Rex, how's it hanging?' or 'Tell me about your day Rex?'" came Rex, clicking his tongue, "You're slipping White."

White rolled his eyes on screen, "Good to see you're well Rex." he reluctantly said, "Hopefully your abilities haven't started to lag due to the lack of turmoil because the coming mission will need you at the top of your game."

"I'm always playing to win White, that's what got me this far."

"Well then hopefully on this mission you an finish things, namely the Consortium."

"Oh?" pondered Rex, looking intrigued, "Did you find them?"

"We've found their most likely spot." he replied, bringing up small map on screen, "The Consortium created several secret off-shore safe houses in case they needed to slip away unseen. We've tracked down most of them and figured out that this one." he explained, the map zeroing in on a particular dot on screen, "Is where they're most likely holed up."

"Then it's time to flush out those rats."

"Exactly, which is why Jungle Cat will accompany you on this mission. His tracking abilities are unmatched, he should be able to pinpoint their exact location."

Jungle Cat nodded, "I'll find them."

"Good. You're heading out now then. We don't want to give them any time to escape."

"Alright team it's time to catch us some self-serving Evo freaks." Rex said, rallying his forces.

Or at least he thought he was. Actually the others had already begun to head out, leaving him behind.

"Hey, wait up!" he yelped, quickly to chase after.

---

A Providence Drop Ship zipped across the bright blue of the sea, their destination being the location of the hidden Consortium base. Rex and his team sat strapped to the sides, even Jungle Cat, although he seemed more bunched together considering his size relative to his seat.

"Man, I've heard of off-shore accounts, but I didn't think we'd be this off-shore. I mean, there's no shore." Rex replied.

"Actually, there is." replied Six, bringing to bear a small PDA, one borrowed from Doctor Holiday, "Based upon coordinates gleamed from the Consortium's files, there is a small nearby island that Anthony Haden-Scott, used as both a getaway and storage facility." replied Six, "Of the safe houses not yet seized this one is the most likely spot for them to be."

Rex nodded in understanding, "Vacation Home huh? Guess when you try to get away from it all, an island in the middle of nowhere is the best bet."

"They've failed." replied Jungle Cat.

"This is right at home for you, ain't it?"

The large cat creature grunt, "More or less. But regardless it'll be simple to sniff the Consortium out."

"Just don't lead us around in circles alright?" came Bobo, "Don't want to be stuck out here longer than I need to be."

"You'd think a chimp would be right at home here." Jungle Cat groused, "Lost you roots?"

Bobo was quick to snap, "Hey! One, I'm more a tropic kind of ape. And two, you don't know the things I've been through. One day you're at the top of the tree, the next you're lying with the dung! Never forget!"

That explanation actually caught Jungle Cat by surprise and he looked to Rex for explanation. The machine building boy could do little but shrug his shoulders and say, "He's complicated."

"More like twisted."

"I can show you twisted whiskers!" barked Bobo, blasters in hand.

"Stow it." came Six, interceding between the group, "We're over the the drop zone."

The two growled at one another a final time but pulled back, unbuckling their harnesses and moving over to the bay doors. Rex and Six were right alone side them and all four stood at the edge as the doors swiveled open.

Gearing up in their own special ways; Six sheathing and unsheathing his Magna Blades, Bobo checking his plasma blasters, Jungle Cat unfurling his claws, and Rex checking the stability of his Nanites; all four agents were ready for confrontation.

The Jump Jet stopped some time later, over an open grassy area and the four agents hopped down from the floating vehicle. It then took off in haste, vacating the scene with booster assisted thrust.

"Intel suggest 10 clicks in this direction." replied Six.

"Time for a little hike. Or in my case, a little drive." came Rex, nanites glowing across his legs.

In a mere moment Rex was seated upon a large floating vehicle, his Rex Ride as he dubbed it. He revved its engines, ready to take off in a blur but Six interceded.

"We don't want the Consortium to see us coming so we make the rest of the trek on foot." replied Six, taking the lead.

Rex groaned but pulled back his build regardless. The metallic creation shrinking and reverting back into his body in a whirl of moving parts.

"We seriously are going to walk through this backwater place?" asked Bobo.

A snort to his side caught his attention though, "Stop whining." came Jungle Cat, leaping up into a nearby tree, "Let's go."

Though Bobo grimaced at Jungle Cat calling him out yet again, he also acknowledged the others as they began their trek.

The expedition took them through foliage, over stones, and across small streams as the four man(?) team scoured about the area, looking for the location of the hidden Consortium hide out. And as a the woods began to clear and the ground slowly flattened out the nose of JungleCat picked up on varied smells, smells that pushed him onward as the others hurriedly followed after. In time they found what they were looking for… at least they thought they did.

Pass a encirclement of foliage sat a rather large… mansion. A carefully managed estate sat in the middle of the woodland locale.

"You've got to be kidding me?" came Rex, "What is this? Gilligan's Island: Rich People's Edition?"

"I did say it was a getaway." replied Six.

"And it took us a month to find these guys, why?" asked Rex.

"Legal matters. They might have tried to enslave the global populace but they were still business men with several assets. Their companies had to make sure everything was in order before they could officially cut ties." replied Six.

Rex just shook his head at that. He was glad he didn't live in the corporate world.

"Well then, all that's left to do is crash this house party!"

Within the estate itself several Black Pawns, robotic enforces of Black Knight, patrolled the outside, armed with gun and blade alike. And though they were diligent in their unwavering servitude, they were unaware of the arrival of enemy forces. Especially when one of those forces was able to deactivate them with but a touch to the shoulder or the back.

Rex systematically deactivated several Black Pawns, shutting them down before they could warn the rest of the mansion forces. Although Rex wasn't the only one of the group dealing with the dark androids. And while Sixx and JungleCat's approach was also quite silent, it ended with far more spare parts than with Rex, the duo slashing and slice through the metallic bodies of the Black Pawns with sword and claw.

Even Bobo got into the silent takedown approach, as silent as jumping atop a Black Pawn and pounded it in the head could be.

In time the perimeter was secure and the group from Providence stood outside the mansion doors.

"Rex, check for cameras." Six ordered, top which the Evo boy nodded.

Putting a hand to the ground Rex's nanites streamed from his body and through the ground toward the doors, creeping up the sides and within. Several cameras in and around the door were encompassed by nanites, nanites that prompting integrated with the recording devices and shut their inner components down.

"Eyes and ears are off." came Rex.

"Which means it won't be long before they noticed something wrong." replied Six, "We make our push here."

"Finally, we get to go all out." came Rex, "Let's take these pompous old fogies down!"

Deep within the mansion, in it's basement level, several Black Pawns were hefting about containers of various sizes and shapes, filled to the brim with weaponry and high-end devices of dubious nature. All this equipment was being brought into a massive looking ship, resembling that of a Providence drop ship, but having more of a… animalistic feel to it, not unlike a massive looking noir shark.

The Black Pawns weren't the only ones doing grunt work, as several strange humanoids transported containers of equipment as well. Obviously not regular humans these creatures sported strange looks as well as even stranger abilities. These five were known as the Consortium, an group of ex-millionaire moguls who had tried to enslave the populace of the planet through immense power granted to them by the Meta Nanites, special control nanites capable to tapping into the ethereal forces of the universe.

Rex however had ruined their plans and taken away their means to acquire absolute sovereignty. And though hidden away on a tropical paradise they had little time to relax, as their self-proclaimed leader, Black Knight, busily coordinated the equipment move.

Once the leader of Providence under orders of the would-be world conquers now Black Knight led the 'merry' little band around in their desperate plea to salvage what little of their riches they could grab. Of course this didn't fly with the group as a whole, something a certain Anthony Haden-Scott made very clear, very loudly.

"This is absurd! I've been reduced to a common peon! Forced to do this tiresome manual labor!" bemoaned Anthony Haden-Scott, the man whose mansion sat above.

Using his power over energy, granted to him by a Meta Nanite, he was busy charging a generator. When it was fully charged several Black Pawns quickly enclosed the generator in a container and hurriedly moved it to the dropship.

"Oh quit your belly aching drama queen. A little hard work and sweat never hurt nobody." came the reply from the cowboy emulating Roswell, a man converted to an Evo capable of manipulating thermal dynamics; or in other words the use of fire and ice were at his command. The heat aspect of his power was currently being put to use, welding lids upon containers to hold any number of insecure items.

"I don't like this either but you don't here me bellyaching. Would only give me a headache." replied a rather boxy looking Evo, the once proud Reddick, now a deformed mutant with power of gravity. With the ability to negate or enhance the planetary force he was using the former to levitate several containers as he pulled them along into the dropship.

Within the dropship was the last of the group, the silent Xanubian. A mutant Evo of bright green, this ex-millionaire had free reign over time itself. Although without the actual Meta Nanite itself to power him his limits were to a few short bursts of time manipulating. This still gave him a decidedly useful feature, which he demonstrated after Reddick had placed the numerous containers in his control on the floor in a haphazard manner. The containers were engulfed in a bright flash of light, and when the light faded they were neatly stockpiled in the hanger hold, Xanubian having used his break in time to stack them.

From her position directly the flow of work Black Knight rolled her eyes at the complaints of Haden-Scott, "I'm not happy about this arrangement either." she said to him, though it also appeared to be directed at the entirely of the group, "I'd rather go this alone, but I'm not so arrogant that I think I could take Providence myself. This may not be the ideal situation, but it's what we have so you'll deal with it."

The energy Evo let off a mutter of discontent, he wasn't use to taking orders. None of them were really, but they had little choice in the matter. None of them were versatile in matters beyond their respective business ventures, even Roswell who had grown up "on the range" as he put it was more accustomed to letting others do the thinking for him. And while Black Knight was essentially doing that, having her lead him around by the nose was not something he enjoyed; a feeling shared by the others.

However a word from Black Knight stemmed their tongues. They needed her.

"Unless you want to be caged like animals by Providence." she replied bluntly to their complaints.

This was indeed true, the group of ex-millionaires wouldn't have stood a chance on their own, powers or no, although that revelation only enraged them further. They were meant to have ultimate power and here they were, slogging around like an everyday person. In a lot of ways it was a massive step down from their previous positions.

To Black Knight's credit she appeared better adjusted to their circumstances than the others, but that didn't mean she liked their conditions either. She could scarcely image their fate like this, but then again their lost of absolute dominance had been out of their hands from the very beginning. Even the Nanite event itself had really only delayed their eventual failure.

She blamed it on an entire slew of circumstances; her inability to realize what was transpiring during the Nanite Project, the underhanded scheming of a certain college, or even the bleeding hearts of Rex's parents. All these and more had contributing factors at denying her her chance at godhood.

That being said, Black Knight was not one to give up. She had clawed, fought, and killed her way to where she was now and no amount of setbacks would stymie her ambitions. She was just going to have to take a more outside the box approach at getting what she wanted. And right now supplying themselves for a long haul was step one in that endeavor.

As the last of the equipment was being loaded upon the drop ship, Black Knight noticed Reddick trying to moving a particular container, trying being the operative word. Though only slightly bigger than an average person Reddick had trouble hefting it about, even with this gravity based powers.

"What is in this thing. It's… like it's pushing back against my powers." he stated, forcing more concentration onto the container.

"Be careful with that thing. It could be crucial to our aims."

"What's in it?"

Black Knight moved to explain, but a Black Pawn interrupted her, as it had a situation update to relay to her.

"We've lost communications with topside and all external feeds have been cut."

"I see." she murmured, quickly deducing the reason, "Then Providence has already made their move. And it's pretty obvious who they sent."

"What's going on?" called Reddick.

"Never mind that or what's in that container, just hurry up and get that thing into the drop ship before…" she called, then getting suddenly interrupted by a dull, but loud banging sound.

There was a long hallway in the basement level that lead to where the Consortium were currently moving supplies and in that hallway Rex and his team were smashing their way through the enemy defenses.

"I could do this all day, although I hope I get a crack at Black Knight and her cronies." came Rex, his massive mechanical fists, the Smask Hands, plowing through a gaggle of Black Pawns.

Most of the enemy kept their distance, retaliating with gunfire. But that did little against Rex and his machines, as well as the skills of Six and JungleCat, the two using their phenomenal speed to dodge around as they got in close.

Blade and claw soon made short work of the resisting force and fire was returned as a salvo of energy shots flew overhead. Bobo's aim was on point as he brought down Black Pawn after Black Pawn.

"Like shooting fish in a barrel."

In time the last of the defending forces were defeated, with JungleCat holding aloft a battered Black Pawn in jaw.

"Having fun over their Fido?" came Bobo, earning him a glare from the large furry Evo. As it tossed aside the useless machine Rex and Six made their way over to massive set of thick metal doors.

"No doubt the Consortium is behind this door."

"Then let me say the magic words." came Rex, rolling back a sleeve as he approached the door.

With a nanite laden hand he pressed against the door and his little machines went to work, scouring out to find the mechanism controlling the door.

On the other side of the door a throng of Black Pawns were at the ready, weapons primed for fire. The telltale sign of Rex's nanites could be seen in their invasive movements, movements that eventually lead them to a console on the other side. Intruding within the console's inner workings the nanites wasted little time disengaging the doors locks, granting Rex and his team access to the underground bunker.

As the doors slowly opened a rain of bullets streamed through. Fortunately Rex had anticipated this and brought out a defense of an energy barrier from a pair of small gauntlets, called his Block Party. The energy shield blocked the storm of bullets as Rex stood casually at the door entrance.

"Guys, guys, guys. You're gonna bore me like this." came Rex, grin strong upon his face, "But then again, what am I suppose to expect against a bunch of overgrown toasters.

Disengaging one of his barriers Rex put a hand to the ground, letting loose his nanite swarm toward the attacking Black Pawns. With little time to evade the mechanical forces were quickly overwhelmed as the nanites overloaded them, causing them to break apart into a pile of parts.

"I said get that aboard!" shouted Black Knight, but the explosive demise of her robotic warriors broke the concentration of Reddick, who let the container drop mightily to the ground.

"Hey Black Knight, fancy meeting you here." came Rex as he stepped through the settling smoke, "Looks like you and your bunch are still mutated Evo freaks huh? Guess that's what you get when you go messing around with stuff you can't handle." he said.

He heard a chuckle from Black Knight, and with but a gesture her body went aglow. Specifically with the movement of nanites through her body. And as the nanites encompassed her, the metallic parts of her body took on a change. What was once metal had become flesh; her form now clothed in a black suit. A long cloak fluttered from her shoulders, as dark hair fell over her face.

"How… did you do that?"

She chuckled once more, "You've seem to have forgotten Rex, I underwent the same experiment performed on you. I can control my nanites just as well as you can, better really."

Rex snorted, "You might have the same powers but trust me when it comes to whose better I got that under lock and key." hands clenched tightly, "Now you got two options, you can take the easy route and just give up this pretty pathetic escape attempt, or you can try the hard route and get your butts handed to you, yet again."

"Rex…" seethed Black Knight, though she managed to retain her demeanor, "I suppose it was inevitable we'd meet again. Can't say that I missed you this pass month."

"Really, I was hoping I left more of an impression the last time we met." he quipped, "But considering how I embarrassed you lot I guess that's not a memory you'd be fond of."

"You may have slowed my goals Rex, but I'm far from defeated."

"Then let's change that." came Sixx, blades at the ready, "Take them down!" he order, the group lunging forward as one.

The Consortium weren't much of a collective battle force but they met their enemies's charge in kind all the same.

An opening salvo came from Bobo, blanketing the Evos in a hail of gunfire. The Consortium did their level best to defend, arms up against the volley, however they were pushed back. As they staggered magnetic blades cut through the air as Six slashed down at Roswell, then Reddick, the former of the two reaching out with his powers. He tried to freeze Sixx on the spot, the floor around him beginning to frost, but a pair of shuriken stopped that attempt cold breaking Roswell's concentration.

By the time he looked back from the encounter a leaping kick from Six found its target, tagging the heat manipulating Evo and knocking him head over heels across a couple of containers. However Six soon lost his footing… when he began to float in the air uncontrollably. It as Reddick, using his power of gravity to levitate Six in the air. Fortunately Six's rescue came in the form of JungleCat, who bodily rammed Reddick, breaking his grip on Six and sending the dome headed villain into a throng of Black Pawns.

Blasts of electrical waves flew out from the palm of Haden-Scott as he tried to hammer his opponents with his oppressive blasts. Rex countered that as he ran through the assault, one of his arms becoming a Smack Hand to smash Haden-Scott into the ground. Hearing the cry of pain from the Evo a smirk of victory found its way to Rex's face, but that smirk quickly turned to a pained grimace as a surge of energy traveled through his metallic fist and gave him quite the shock.

Rex stumbled back as the electricity ran its course, pulling back his fist in order to give room for a new build. In its place did a long metal tendril take its place, attached to a large battery dynamo, the Blaster Caster had come to life. With a whip Rex entangled the energy Evo in his build's dark bindings, and even as energy poured out of Haden-Scott Rex was able to negate it with energy of his own. With his enemy shorted out for the moment Rex was able to fling the Evo into one of his brethren, Xanubian, who took the hit dead on.. at least at first.

With a quick burst of time rewind the hit that initial knocked Xanubian aside was changed out with the time Evo teleporting away as Haden-Scott was flung aside. Rex though had long since realized that the best way to deal with the temporal manipulator was to power on through, regardless of whether or not he hit him.

His time burst could only be used in a limited capacity and even if he reverted time original damage remained. A point Rex proved when he pulled back his Blaster Caster to release large bolo type weapons, his Funchucks as he called them, and spun them about as a blinding pace.

As they spun the weapons charged with energy and the moment Rex had Xanubian in his sights he slammed the weapons together, creating a wave of energy that rippled out in a sweeping arc. The time jumper was caught unaware in his reseting stage and was unable to rewind the events, thus taking the blast full on.

Black Knight watched as Xanubian tumbled through the air, grimacing at the defeat. Her grimace only darkened as she noticed the rest of the Consortium quickly losing ground against the forces of Providence. With a growl she threw her hand out, releasing her own Nanites. At her side Rex noticed her making a build of his own and he aimed to stop her, retracting this Funchucks to switch them out with another.

Rex and Black Knight met in a duel of blades, Rex's massive BFS versus the amethyst glow of Black Knight's energy saber. They pushed against one another with equal strength, but in time Black Knight found herself slowly losing ground to Rex, the boy smirking as he gained the advantage. Realizing that a lengthening battle would turn out bad for her and her forces Black Knight order a strategical withdrawal.

"Get to the drop ship, now!" she barked to the others.

Though battered from their battles, the respective members of the Consortium were able to push back their attackers to make their escape; Roswell unleashing a line of flames across the ground to cut them off. With that the group turned tail and ran, Xanubian in particular warping from sight, only to reappear at the doors of the drop ship.

"Deploy the Quadruped!" she barked.

Looking up Xanubian saw something lower itself from the hatch, a massive green machine. As the flames quickly died down the machine came into view, looking very much like an oversized tank. But that wasn't its only peculiarity. Instead of two sets of treads it possessed four, with what appeared to be large grapple claws attached for each tread. And as it hunkered down those grapple claws acted as a balance as the tank… rose to its feet.

Twin cannons, housed by brackets rose as well, swiveling slightly as the "tank" stomped forward. The head of the tank had a large cockpit of sorts, where a a single "eye" glowed ominous, looking about the assembled group.

"Meet my… guard dog." came Black Knight, smirk high upon her face, "I was prepared for you Rex, but are you prepared for this?"

"Okay, I'll admit, pretty impressive. But if you think an overgrown mutt is enough to stop me then you've just not been paying attention." came Rex.

"We'll's see." she said, turning to her machine, "Attack."

It let loose what could only be seen as a roar, at least a grind of machinery loud enough to seem that way. It then charged forward with weapons hot.

Twin machine guns on the head of the beast warmed up, and with bright muzzle flash it unloaded on Rex and his team. The group dove for cover as the mechanical beast spread out bullets, caring little for the fact that a few Black Pawns remained in its line of fire.

The bullets tore through their bodies, decimating what remained of their numbers while shots ricocheted off the hiding spots of Rex's team.

"Seriously, where'd this nutjob get a thing like that?" came Bobo, head down as bullets wracked his area.

Bullets danced overhead, Six taking cover behind a heavy duty truck to avoid them, with him peering off the side occasionally, "Not a clue, but at this rate it'll mow us down if we can't get close."

Rex peered back to his encamped allies, trying to think of a way to bail them out. His distraction gave Black Knight the leverage she needed to kick one of his legs from under him, and then boot him away with another.

She then turned to the remains of her forces, "Move it, now! Get that equipment aboard!"

The Consortium stumbled about but they grabbed what they could and trudged aboard, although Reddick continued to have trouble with that particular container from earlier. It hadn't been easy to manipulate the first time around and being rushed didn't make things any easier.

"Hurry up! Get that aboard now!" yelled Black Knight, turning to Reddick.

Rex tried to follow after but the robot tank blocked his path, a strained growling issuing forth at him while its weapons pivoted on him.

"Okay Rover, it's time I taught you how to sit!" barked Rex, nanites traveling through his legs to build two massive boots over them, his Punk Busters. Mid-jump he unleashed his Smack Hands and drove his attack home before it could unleashing its ballistics. Rex's blow was staggeringly powerful, pushing the metal monster back, but it still stood its ground and swiped at Rex as he pulled back. He dodged its initial strike but the second came faster than he realized and he was batted away.

He flew clean across the room, sailing into a a pile of crates, toppling them over in a heap. The mecha lunged over at him, "teeth" bared and pounced. Rex moved a hair quicker and lunged out with his Smack Hand, though the beast caught it in its "jaws" and started to wring its neck around, flailing the poor boy in its maw.

"Hey! I'm not a chew toy!" he yelled, slamming his free fist against the mech multiple times.

Rex eventually disengaged his hand, and used the leverage to swing up and over atop the beast, hanging tight as it tried to throw him off.

"Alright buddy, time you took a nap!" he said, slamming his hand atop the machine.

His nanites immediately went to work with their invasive probe, digging deep into the mech's systems. However something was amiss, as Rex felt his nanites being… blocked? Somehow or other his nanites were stopped at a certain point and it definitely wasn't at a point he could use to shut the machine down.

"How in the world…?" he muttered, his lapse in grip giving the mech the opportunity it needed to snap its head forward, throwing Rex off of it.

Close to the drop ship Reddick had a solid "grip" on the container with his powers and if given a few extra moments would have gotten aboard with it, but a metal blade flashed through the air and impacted his shoulder. Of course because of his new physiology all it did was puncture his metal hide, but the piercing hit still hurt something fierce. He let loose a terrible howl as he tried to reach for the blade, but Six had already leapt over him, grabbing the sword and yanking it out of his shoulder, causing more pain to Reddick.

"You're not going anywhere." Six said, blade pointed at Reddick.

The gravity Evo was in too much pain to effectively use his powers, making him vulnerable to further attack. Fortunately aid came in the form of Black Knight and her energy mace, swinging the weapon out from its long cord at Six. Six blocked the mace itself but the whipping cord swung around at his side, forcing him to retreat. Black Knight couldn't follow up the attack however as blaster fire whizzed past her, courtesy of Bobo.

It was then she realized that most of her forces were decimated, save for the massive walking tank, but even with it she knew victory would be a long shot.

"Cover our retreat and get aboard the ship!" she called to the mech, which was currently trying to crush Rex in its jaws, which Rex held at bay with his Smack Hands.

Upon receiving new orders it once again flung Rex aside once moreand leapt across the area, dropping down near Black Knight. It then swiveled its main cannons toward the the group and fired, two cannon shots flying out to impact nearby.

By then everyone had already dove for cover, save for Rex who tore through the smoke thrown up by the blast and retaliated. He managed to gouge it across its cheek with his sword, through the beast lashed yet again, slamming at the weapon and driving Rex back to the ground.

"Time to play a little game of catch!" barked Rex, bringing out his Slam Cannon, the powerful pressurized launcher that scooped up nearby crates and loaded them.

With a piston push the crates flew straight and true toward the tank, slamming home on its head as multiple shots racked its form.

"What's the matter, not a fan of this game?" came Rex, pummeling the beast with the metal crates, "Guess you really can't teach an old dog new tricks!"

Black Knight watched as her beast was being pushed back and knew she had little choice but to leave the rest of her supplies and beat a hasty retreat.

"Smoke screen!" she hollered, to which her robotic beast obeyed.

Panels on its back opened up, firing off rounds of small pods that whistled through the air leaving smoke trails in the wake. The area was soon enveloped by smoke, throwing off the shots of Rex. Seeking cover the mech turned tail and ran toward the drop ship with Black Knight right beside it.

Rex futilely swiped at the smoke to clear the way, but it was not until a massive gust of wind kicked up did the smoke begin to clear. The gust came from the sudden escape of air as massive panels above opened, revealing the outside world. As they opened the dropship pushed off, it's engines burning as it began its ascent.

"You ain't getting away!" he roared, releasing his backpack, the Boogie Pack, to gain height and fly after them.

A dark gloved finger pointed venomously at the approaching boy, "Bring him down!" barked Black Knight.

The Quadruped leveled its weapons at Rex, the boy in question pulling back as he saw the cannons square on him. He managed to throw up his barrier at the last second before he was bombarded by cannon shots.

Black Knight looked on with not a hint of sympathy, though she did show signs of regret, for as the smoke began to clear she took notice of the supplies she was forced to leave behind, especially the container she had so desperately tried to get aboard.

"I'll need to step up my plans." she thought as she turned into the dropship, the doors closing behind her and the Quadruped.

From the clearing smoke came Rex, unharmed thanks to his timely defense, however he was sore at letting Black Knight get aboard her ship and escape. He thought about giving chase but he knew his machines wouldn't give him the sheer speed he'd need to catch her.

"The rat slipped away." he muttered, flying back to the others to check on their condition.

"Well that was fun." grumbled Bobo, stumbling out of his hiding spot behind a pile of crates, "Next time we have a mission to storm a base I'm calling in sick."

"Where did Black Knight get such a powerful automaton?" pondered Jungle Cat, "And why wait until now to use it?"

"Maybe we can get some answers from what was left behind, but right now we should return to base." replied Sixx.

There was a nod of agreement, but as Rex looked to the sky his glare deepened, "I'm coming for you Knight." he said before taking off with the others.

---

Upon returning to Providence base Rex and the team were immediately assailed by White Knight over a view screen in "The Tower", the area of the base for scientific observation, and he looked none to happy about their failure to capture the Consortium.

"Mind explaining how the Consortium managed to get away when you had the drop on them?" growled White Knight, just barely keeping his anger in check.

"They were more prepared than we originally thought." replied Six, "We underestimated their resourcefulness."

"Apparently they have access to advanced technologies despite their disadvantage of no longer having financial influence." replied Jungle Cat.

"Guess when you had the buck these guys had you do a little hoarding." came Bobo.

"Yeah, giant robot tanks with guns." groaned Rex, still reeling from his encounter with the Quadruped Assault Tank, "That thing was ridiculously strong."

"Considering that was a ninth generation battle tank,the Quadruped, designed to take on high-level Evos you did very well against it. Especially considering it had an anti-nanite synthetic polymer core." came the voice of Holiday as she walked into the room.

"Anti-nanite polymer?" Rex asked.

"Yeah, it's basically enclosed in high-density plastic." replied Holiday.

"Plastic? Seriously?"

"Don't look so surprised. Many scientist have discovered that a dense enough plastic shell is impermeable enough to keep even nanites from passing through. Although I'm more concerned about the Quadrupod itself. Very few governments have access to that level of cybernetic tech since it's still suppose to be in the prototype stage. Which I'm guessing is what you probably fought."

"That was a prototype?" asked Rex, dubious look on his face, "Well I for one hope they don't manage to get all the bugs out."

A pensive look fell over White Knight's features as he pondered their words, "Well, the Consortium were some of the most powerful people on the planet. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised as to what they managed to get their hands on. But if that's the case then more now than ever is it imperative we find and neutralize them. They could still be a major threat despite being on the run."

"I doubt they'll make much noise as they try to gather their strength." replied Sixx, "They'll go underground."

"For now." White Knight added.

"Hey, don't look so down in the dumps. We did dig those rats out of one of their holes and there's only so many places they can hide." replied Rex, "Well find them soon enough. And when we do we'll definitely hit them with everything we got."

"Well, I might not share you enthusiasm but I do agree. For the moment we'll let the Consortium problem sit." replied White Knight, deciding to move the subject to another topic, "What I'm more concerned about is that container you found."

"About that." came Holiday, stepping into the conversation once more, "I've done a preliminary scan and while I can't determine what is in the container I can tell you that whatever it is it gives off a powerful electromagnetic field." she replied, the results of her scan appearing on her PDA, "And it does it in an odd rhythmic fashion… like something I know I've seen before." she murmured.

"Is it a power source, some sort of battery?" White asked.

"If it is a battery it's unlike anything I've ever seen. There's no battery I know capable of giving off this kind of energy at this size."

"A bomb then?"

"I… can't be sure, but it's unlikely."

"Even so, I don't want to take any chances with this. Set up the bomb squad and put the base on high alert." White said, though Rex scoffed, garnering his attention, "Something you want to add?"

"Yeah. Who needs a bomb squad when we got the master of deactivation right here." he said, "Let me take a crack at it."

White Knight gave Rex and uneasy look, "Like you did against the Quadruped?" he questioned.

Rex snorted once more to that, "Oh come on White, you know I've dealt with stuff way more dangerous. And that fight earlier with the big bad bot was just a fluke. How was I suppose to know Black Knight had her toy bubble-wrapped?"

"And whose to say that she didn't place a similar failsafe on this container?"

"I do." replied Holiday, "I'm not picking up on any polymer readings, nor any nanite readings in fact." she said, noting White Knight's confused expression, "This most likely equates to the electromagnetic barrier that the power source gives off, not unlike your containment suit. In fact the rhythmic pulses it gives off also means that the core is stable. I don't see any immediate danger."

"See White, we got this."

He let out a small grunt, still not entirely convinced, but he also knew that just spinning their wheels would get them nowhere so he put his trust in Rex and urged him to go ahead.

A nodding Rex flexed his fingers as a slight grin creased his face. The others waited patiently for him to do his magic… although they did take a step or two back, to give him room among other things. Placing his hands on the container Rex released his powers into it, immediately noticing some resistance upon his nanites entering.

"Be careful Rex, that electromagnetic barrier is strong." Holiday warned.

"Yeah, it is. But it's nothing I can't handle." he said, taking a breath, "Just gotta put a little elbow grease into it." he replied, pushing down further on the box.

In response the influx of nanites increased and the tiny machines slowly got to work interlacing within the container's inner workings. Soon the interlocking system within the container began to unlock and the container slowly opened. When the container was completely breeched Rex pulled back his nanites, slight exertion etched on his face.

"Whew, I must be out of practice." he chuckled, though his attention was quickly snapped back to the releasing container, as was everyone else.

And upon opening the revelation of the container's contents was revealed to be…

"A girl?" asked Rex.

It did appear to be a girl within the container, a girl of caucasian descent, around 17 years of age, with dirty blonde hair splayed out just above her shoulders. She wore a green skintight sleeveless bodysuit with matching green boots. A black belt hooked around her waist and she wore dark brown fingerless gloves of alternate length; the left glove ran all the way up to just under her shoulder, while the right barely extended pass her wrist.

There also seemed to be something odd about her body. There appeared to be faint lines of incision across the visible parts of her body, like her joints, but also curiously around her face. Almost as if she was pieced together like some sort of puzzle.

And smack dab in the middle of her chest, just above her pectorals, was a blue sphere, no more than the size of a baseball, that glowed in a low light.

"Maybe it's a mail-order bride from Amazon." came Bobo.

"You would know." snorted Jungle Cat.

Bobo leveled an intense glare at the larger furry creature, "Why I oughta…"

"What are we looking at doctor?" Six asked Holiday, not wanting the conversation to veer off.

"I'm… not sure." she said, "I don't think a person could survive in there… unless." she said, running her PDA over the 'person' in the container, "This is… wow." she murmured, looking astonished.

"What is it doc?" Rex asked.

"It's… not a biological person, definitely. It's completely inorganic." she replied.

Six quickly picked up on her meaning, "So it's a robot?"

"An Android actually, and that only scratches the surface of what this is." she replied.

"What do you mean?" inquired White Knight.

"Well, in no small terms this definitely has to be the most advanced cybernetic construct I have ever seen." she said, continuing her scan of the android, "The isn't just a bunch of wires and circuits made to look like a person, but a complete reproduction of a living human."

"What?"

"While not organic it has a complete endothermic skeletal structure, synthetic muscle fiber anatomy, even a type of energy relay system designed to mimic a circulatory system." she said, suddenly realizing something as well, "That's what the rhythmic beating is. The continuous pulse releases are from this android's core… like a heartbeat."

"Okay, so it's a really advanced robot." came Rex.

"It's more than that. I'd dare say it's the avant-garde of android construction. It's one of a kind."

"And Black Knight had a hold of it." came Six, "Any idea as to how she did?"

"I wish I could tell you. Though she definitely didn't make it herself. This is way too far above her." replied Holiday, "In fact no other android production in the world comes even close to this. Whoever made it is far ahead of the times."

Unbeknownst to the group, as they discussed the android laying before him said systems of the bot were already up and running, though the android itself did not stir. Nonetheless it picked up on their conversation, listening in on their words.

"Then I suppose that the Consortium had their hands in more than just nanite research." replied White Knight, "And now I'm curious as to who built it."

"I am as well." replied Holiday, though the look on her face was pensive, "Although I can tell its for a different reason than yours."

"If this thing is as advanced as you say it is then there's no doubt that it can be used as a weapon, which I don't doubt was Black Knight's intent."

"I'm not sure. I'm not picking up any obvious weaponry in it." Holiday replied, "But you're right. I wouldn't put it pass Black to use this as a means to an end."

"Then what do we do with it?" asked Rex, "Throw it in the back of the cupboard?"

"I'd like to analyze the construct further." replied Holiday.

"Too risky. It might activate and there's no telling whether Black Knight pre-programmed it to attack or not." came White

"All the more reason to get a more in-depth analysis of it. You can't just shut everything away because of the potential danger it poses." came Holiday, "There's no need to put this back in storage."

"Doctor, you're letting your intellectual curiosity get the better of your judgment." came White.

"Well, if we let your paranoia get the better of your judgment you'd have Rex in a storage box himself."

White Knight grunted at that, but he didn't argue. Hindsight was always 20/20, but had he not learned to trust Rex and his judgment there'd be a good chance the world would be under Consortium rule. Still, White was a man who didn't like taking chances, especially with things of immense power.

Then Rex stepped in to give his take on things, "Yeah White, relax. Even if this thing did wake up I'd put it right back to sleep in seconds." he said, fingertips bristling, "You got nothing to worry about." he said, flicking the android across its nose.

However the decision of whether or not to store the android away was taken out of his hands when the eyes of the android shot open with vivid surprise.

"Hey, it's awake!" came Rex, peering above the machine, as did the others.

"That hurt." came the android, followed by a balled fist flying straight up into Rex's face.

With a sharp cry Rex was sent tumbling away while the android immediately jumped out of its container and made a beeline for the nearest exit.

"What did you do!?" came an accusatory White, looking toward Rex.

The boy in question was quick to respond even as he held his nose in pain, "I didn't do anything! I hardly touched it!"

"Actually you more than likely did, when you unlocked the containment unit. That acted as its activation." replied Holiday, "But if that's the case then it probably heard everything we've been talking about."

"After it!" came Six, rushing out the door with the others not lagging far behind.

—

A klaxon called echoed out across Providence base, alerting the military personnel to warning.

Several view screens around the based popped on, revealing White Knights face as he declared, "We have an intruder running loose in the base. Non-human gynoid with undetermined attack capabilities. All Providence agents are to take up arms and bring it down!"

Agents all over the base dropped what they were doing and ran toward the nearest load out stations, grabbing at their combat weapons. Down a nearby hallway a group that was gearing up heard the sound of quick footsteps and as they turned down the hall they were shoved aside by the gynoid as she raced pass them.

"I want Providence on lockdown now!" came White Knight to the Providence agents in sit-op, "I will not let this thing run loose in my base!"

Holiday, who was still in the Tower, was busy on a nearby console, "I'm trying to monitor her movements. Fortunately that high energy source in her chest is easy to track. She's moving through sector B-47."

Upon a map a circular dot represented the movement of the gynoid, and with her signature pinned down Holiday was able to tap into nearby cameras to get a better look at the fleeing automaton.

"What is it's objective?"

"I doubt she has any." replied Holiday, "Based upon the randomness of her movements she doesn't have any particular destination in mind. She's just trying to escape."

"Then it'll be disappointed. Relay those coordinates to our agents and keep me posted." replied Knight, before the screen shut off.

Holiday nodded, but she lingered on at the sight of the running robot, "She looks scared."

Meanwhile Six, with Bobo, Jungle Cat, and Rex, were racing down a nearby hallway when Six got a call.

"B-47? Right, making our way over there now. Thanks Rebecca." he said, before turning to the others, "This way."

"Holiday found it? Good, I'm looking for a little payback." came Rex, still occasionally rubbing his nose.

He heard Bobo chuckle at his side, "Guess so. It did drop you."

"It did not drop me!"

"You let your guard down an it took advantage of that." replied Jungle Cat, "You're far to unprepared sometimes."

"Hey, that bot sucker punched me!" barked Rex, "But don't worry. I plan on returning the favor." he growled, slamming fist into hand.

"Darn it! Another dead end!" they heard from down a hallway.

"Looks like you just might get your chance." replied Six as he lead the team to the source of the curse.

Sure enough they found the android pounding on a nearby door that had shut in front of her. Their footsteps alerted her to their arrival and she turned to face her pursuers.

"Surrender, or we'll take you down." came Six, Magna Blade pointed at the bot.

"Or don't. I'm fine either way." came Rex, taking the lead, "Besides, why are you trying to talk to it anyway Six? It's just a machine."

Said "machine" gave Rex a piercing glare and clenched her fist tightly, "And you're just a human." it shot back.

"Who you calling just human sister?" came Rex, punctuating his point by unleashing nanites from his arms, forming his Smack Hands.

A shocked expression creased her face for a moment as she took in the sight, "What are you?"

"Baby, I'm Rex. You're worst nightmare."

Her glare deepened, though it was meant as a sort to analysis on her part. From her perspective her eyes scanned Rex's body and found an abundance of nanites swarming about his system.

"Ah, I see. You're not human, you're an Evo. You're a freak."

"Hey! Name calling is out of line! You don't here me calling you an oversized toaster oven!" he barked back, "So instead of shooting off your mouth why don't we settle this like civilized folks and pound the crud out of one another!?"

"Fine by me!" she yelled, racing at him.

"Rex wait!" called Six, but the boy was already dashing forward himself, where he met head on with his robotic adversary.

Rex swung out first, his reach giving his a decisive advantage… at least in terms of distance. The robot girl dodged around his initial strike. Rex swiped his metal hand out to try and pin her to the wall. She was a hair quick and spun around his swipe. He reached over with his other hand, metal digits groping at her, but her deft speed and agility had her leaping up and atop the metal fist. Rex barely got out a shocked cry before she lunged at him with her own fist clenched.

With a resounding crack she belted him across his face, knocking him too the floor in a single blow. As he groaned on the ground he saw a blur of fur flash over him, Jungle Cat leapt into the fray. His speed surprised the mechanoid and he grabbed hold of its shoulders, pushing it back against the door. The bot tried to wrangle herself free, and in the struggle managed to get an arm loose. But Jungle Cat's ferocity kept her to getting a better handle on her opponent.

The beastly Evo then barred its fangs and struck, aiming to tear the gynoid's arm clean off. However is it chomped down on the metal appendage it came to a startling realization. Despite his overwhelming jaw strength, Jungle Cat couldn't bite through the metal plating of his enemy. In fact his mighty fangs didn't so much as scratch the arm's surface.

"Something wrong kitty-cat? Steel's not to your taste?" asked the robot girl, chuckling under the snarling beast, "I'm gonna send you to the dentist!" she bark, dislodging her other arm to bring it around Jungle Cat's snout.

The sudden hit had the Evo reeling, and a second hit to the jaw had him staggering. Seeing his teammate flounder Bobo leveled his blasters on the fighting android, but found it hard to take aim.

"You, move it furball! I can't get a clean shot with you big husky self in the way!" Bobo called.

"That works out fine for me!" came the bot, slamming an elbow into Jungle Cat's midsection.

The big beast faltered and the gynoid took this as her cue to lock an arm underneath his so that she could his falling weight to her advantage. With a quick foot pivot to send Jungle Cat up and over her shoulder, she flung him straight at Bobo. The simian shooter couldn't avoid the big form of Jungle Cat in time and ended up getting rolled up in the throw.

She celebration though was cut short as she noticed a sword slicing through the air. The gynoid only just managed to avoid the blow but Six was on the move, slashing at her in quick succession. The android did its level best to avoid his strikes, but he kept her off balance with his own deft skills. Eventually he got the upper hand and brought his sword down upon her for a finishing blow. She reacted in the nick of time, bringing arms up crossed to defend and Six soon found himself blocked by her metallic arms.

"Why you look so surprised? Told you I was made of steel." she said, keeping Sixx's blade at bay, "Well, an enhanced steel-based alloy anyway. Super concentrated atomic structure and all that. Not gonna be able to cut through me with those blades."

"Then I won't cut you." came Sixx, bringing his other sword to bare, alongside the first.

As the two swords connected a magnetic pulse issued forth, blowing back the gynoid to the closed doors once more.

"I see… magnetic induced blades. Neat toys you got there." she said, rushing him once more, "Mind if I borrow them for a bit?"

Six struck out with his combined blades, but the gynoid was a step ahead, grabbing hold of the blade shaft with its robotic hands.

Though it felt the magnetic forces strongly act upon it, the gynoid was able to hold the blade, and with a quick movement, slam the blade into the door, particular the control panel on it. The energy flux shattered the console and forced the door open, with the gynoid kicking Six away in his unbalance state.

"Thanks for the assist there." she said, hefty Sixx's pilfered blades across her shoulder, "Oh, and boys, if you don't want a repeat performance I suggest you stay out of my way." she said, giving a smug grin and cutesy wink before taking off down the now open hallway.

"What… just happened?" asked Rex as he woozily rose to his feet,

"She kicked our backsides is what happened." came Bobo, "And speaking of, get yours offa me!" he barked, shoving at the still dazed Jungle Cat.

"Come on, we can't let her get away from us." came Six, jumping to his feet to run after the escaping robot.

And he wasn't the only one. Providence Agents scoured the base from the fleeing bot, five men patrols armed with heavy weapon blasters rushing about. They followed a path of several forced open doors, courtesy of Sixx's weapons confiscated by the bot. Unfortunately as Six and the team ran through the hallways and met up with other teams they found they had lost their target.

"Holiday, lost visual, can you tell me were the target is?" asked Sixx.

"She's right above you." replied Holiday over the comm.

"Where, I don't see her. She couldn't have gotten past us."

"No. She's right above you." repeated Holiday, "In the ducts."

Sure enough when Six looked up and listened he noticed the subtle sound of something making its way through the air duct system.

"Bobo, after it. Rex, Jungle Cat with me." came Six.

Nodding to the command Bobo followed after the gynoid from the open vent.

"Holiday, can you predict where it's headed next?" Six asked.

"If she keeps up her current path then there's only one place she'll end up, Sector-35 of the base."

"The hanger."

"Exactly. That would be the best place for her to make her escape."

"You keep saying that." he replied.

"Saying what?"

"Her, or she." he replied, "As if it's a person. Why?"

Holiday took pause at the question, but eventually answered, "I've been watching her movements, and the best I can tell this isn't the reaction from a methodical autonomous robot. This is more how a person might react, a human."

"But it's just a machine."

"Physically yes, but I believe this facsimile is more than skin deep, in a manner of speaking." replied Holiday, "I believe this is a thinking and feeling artificial intelligence. Far beyond anything currently in the world."

"Are you saying its… conscious?"

"I don't know for sure. But think of it like this. She wakes up in a strange place with stranger people, with weapons and abilities chasing her down. She's reacting like anyone would, in fear."

"But she attacked Rex."

"Yeah, sucker punched me." Rex called as he ran aside Six.

"Well technically Rex 'attacked' her first with that nose flick." replied Holiday, a small giggle popping up, "Maybe she just has a hair-trigger personality."

"Now you're saying that overgrown toaster has a personality?" came Rex, "What's next? I shouldn't bang on the washing machine lest I hurt it feelings and it shrinks my clothes to get back at me?"

"Rex, when you first came to Providence you were treated as little more than a weapon. But you showed you're far more than that. And even if it was programmed into her, what's to say that she doesn't feel the same way?"

Rex couldn't argue that point. A good portion of his time in Providence was spent trying to show he wasn't just some tool that could be switched on and off whenever it was time to do a job. He might have been an Evo but he was just as much a person as anyone else.

"And you think this bot is like that?"

"I'd like to believe so." replied Holiday.

Rex, took that idea to mind as the group rushed toward the hanger.

Within the hanger a nearby vent was kicked out and the lithe figure of the robotic female swooped out. Landing some feet away she surveryed the area and saw the place chock full of jump jets.

"Oh yeah, found my ride." she said, racing off towards the nearest one.

Pulling over the canopy she climbed aboard and glanced at the dashboard, grimacing at the fact she didn't understand the controls. She played her hands over the console and oddly enough the ends of her fingertips extended, releasing something of a audio jack, though far more advanced than normal and with a slight surge of energy bouncing between two poles.

"At least my USB-jack is still operational. Just gotta hack this thing and it's smooth sailing." she said, inserting her finger into the jet's onboard computer.

Plugging into the internal systems and breaking through the firewalls only took a little time, and soon enough the engines of the jump pet warmed up.

"Yes! Time to blow this joint!" she squealed happily, though that squeal turned to a shocked cry when blaster fire buffeted the side of the jump jet.

She turned to the source to find Bobo unleashing a volley of energy shots at the hijacked hover vehicle.

"Sorry chica, no punching out earlier from this brawl!"

"Alright monkey boy, I didn't want to have to do this but if you're gonna start shooting at a girl then she's not gonna just sit back and take it!" barked the android, turning the jump jet so that it was facing Bobo.

The chimp had a sneaking suspicion what was coming next and leapt away from the vent as the vulcan cannons on the jump jet began to whirl. Moments later bullets sprayed out, the bullet storm cascading just behind the retreating simian. Fortunately he found cover in the opening of the nearby door, with Six and the rest rushing in. However the Rex was the first to leap into the room, right into the coming path of the bullets.

"No wait! Look out! Get out of the way!" shouted the android.

A surprised Rex threw he arms up at the call, managing to create smaller mechanical gauntlets, ones he dubbed the Block Party, that created an energy barrier to deflect the lethal shots.

Ceasing her fusillade a sense of relief passed over the android's features, as well as slight shock, the gynoid befuddled by yet another strange ability of Rex, "Never seen an Evo do the stuff he does." she replied, watching as the gauntlets retreated back into his body, "He doesn't just get power from his nanites, but it looks like he controls them as well. Is he some kind of new breed of Evo?" she pondered, though quickly snapped out of her wonderment as the group started to converge on her, "No time to figure it out now. Need to get out of here."

Turning the jump jet in a wide swivel she pointed it at the hanger doors and activated the jet's missile system. They where soon primed and aimed straight at the door, and with a thought they flew out toward the doors, screaming across the hanger before detonating on their target.

A large blast escaped the hanger bay of Providence base, with a plume of smoke leaking out from the damaged doors.

However the gynoid didn't look to happy with the results, "Not quite big enough. But another volley should do it."

That didn't come to pass however as a chunk of metal slammed into the side of the jump jet before she could position it for another shot. Turning across the cockpit the android girl bore witness to Rex's Slam Cannon, the pressurized catapult pulling at the very floor itself and using it as a weapon. Once again armed Rex fired the cannon, scoring a hit across the jet's bow. The blow knocked the jet off balance, though its pilot did her level best to steady the vehicle.

Still, her stupor gave Rex the time he needed to lunge at her with his Punk Buster boots and Smack Hands out, ready to bring the hammer down. There was a violent jerking motion within the cockpit as the gynoid was jumbled around inside from Rex slamming his fist into the side of the jump jet. The jet teetered to a side before scraping a wing against the ground, scraping until the wing snapped off entirely. With its balance completely compromised the jump jet swiveled around wildly for a time, forcing the android to abandon it lest she get caught up in the subsequent wreckage that followed.

Pulling herself to her feet the android spied the wrecked jump jet in anguish, then quickly turned to the hole she had made in the hanger wall. It might not have been big enough for a jet, but she still get through herself and make a run for it. Although that plan was squashed before it could even begin as Rex stood in her path.

"You're not getting pass me, not a third time." he warned, the nanites in his arms glowing brightly, "I'm shutting you down!"

"Bring it freak! Have you seen what I can do to Evos?"

"Have you see what I can do to machines?" he shot back.

He rushed her with hands extended and she retaliated in kind. The two interlocked in a struggle, with both the same in general terms of strength. However Rex's true intent to was force his nanites into the gynoid and shut her systems down. But as he did so he noticed something strange. Just like when he tried to open her container from earlier he felt a resistance. This time around though the resistance was much stronger. Much too stronger in fact.

"What the!" shrieked Rex, pulling back his advance when he saw his nanites being repelled.

With a yell the android girl's core glowed brightly, release what appeared to be a powerful pulse of energy that completely rejected the nanite advance. And pushed Rex back in the process.

"I don't know what you were trying to do, but there's a reason I don't have a single nanite in me." she said, pointing to the glowing sphere in her chest, "This core and my system are designed to keep nanites out, so that they don't interfere with my more… delicate features." she said, cocky grin from ear to ear, "You're some kind of messed up machine based Evo but there's no way your nanites are gonna get past my barrier!"

Rex recovered, then snorted at her declaration, "Fine then. Guess we do this the old fashion way."

At that he summoned for a new weapon, a massive double edged sword, the BFS, to bear. Adding to her woes he had the blade spin on its axis, becoming a vibrant buzzsaw.

Hesitant to get into a scuffle she turned back in an attempt to leave the hanger, but Six and the others were already on her. And to make matters worse armed Providence agents stormed the room, quickly leveling their weapons on her, each primed to fire.

Extending the shafts of the Manga Blades the gynoid peered around the room and tried to access her situation. She didn't doubt she could get pass the Evo boy, but at the same time he wouldn't go down easily and there was enough hardware pointed at her to gun her down despite her harden shell. In the same token, if she tried to push pass the enemy agents she was sure that the nanite user would slam her with his oversized weapons.

Her only chance of escape was getting them to come to her and hope she could find an opening.

"Fine then! Bring it! I'll take you all on!"

"With pleasure." came Rex, stepping forward to strike.

"Wait!" they heard a call come, stopping Rex's advance.

It was Doctor Holiday, pushing pass the Providence agents to get ahead of the group.

"Doc?" pondered Rex.

"You. Renegade Unit: CA4-6M-09N, stop." called Holiday, garnering a quizzical look from Six, "I got her code number from the container."

"Look lady. Just because you know my production number doesn't mean I'll just respond to your commands." barked the android, "I'm not just some machine you can parade around! I'm…"

"Carmen Wright."

The android stalled at the name, "… how, how do you know my name?" she asked.

"You're right. Knowing your production number wouldn't let me control you. But I was able to use it to track down your creator, so to speak. You were an android created in the Renegade Project, weren't you?"

"Renegade project?" asked Rex, blade still out but the spinning had ceased.

Holiday was quick to explain, "Carmen was built, like many other androids, under the Renegade Project, a secret military program designed to create robotic soldiers to send into war." Holiday explained, "Carmen is part of the CA4 series, which were the first to be personified with more humanlike attributes who could blend in with the crowd, serving more as personal bodyguards to high-level officials than outright infantry." she continued on, urging the Providence Agents to lower their weapons, "However the series developed many malfunctions and system failures. Carmen here was the only one that had stabilized and had a perfect running emotional system. That's why I said she's one of a kind. She is literally the first successful prototype of a machine that can actually feel. Not simply mimic feelings or pose understanding, but to truly have emotions."

"Whoa…" murmured Rex.

"Well yeah. I feel. And right now I'm not feeling all that comfortable with you humans hunting me down like a dog. So back off!" barked the android, Carmen Wright.

"How'd you figure all this out?" asked Six, "If this is a secret military project…?"

"The same way Black Knight did. Let's just say she had a lot of back door access to a few things and integrated that into Providence's computer files. Once I put in Carmen's production number the entire history of the Renegade Project popped up, though I didn't really have time to go through it all." replied Holiday, "But as far as I could tell, her creator, Nathaniel Wright, had passed away a short time after the Nanite Event and with no claim to her the project was shut down and she was put into storage, which we inadvertently ended just now. Well, Rex did anyway." she replied, turning her attention back to Carmen, "Isn't that right?"

"Yeah, when I wasn't need anymore I was locked away, in an oversized bread box!" barked Carmen, the grip upon the blades tight, her teeth grinding, "Completely deactivated and pushed aside! I couldn't do anything in that coffin. I might as well have been dead!" she screamed, "And let me tell you something, there's no way I'm going back in there. I'll take you all down if I have too!"

"There's no need for that. We can help you if you just calm down." replied Holiday.

Carmen scoffed audibly, "Not buying it lady."

"I'm not lying to you. I honestly just want to help you."

"I've seen honest faces before. They usually come attached to liars."

Holiday sighed, seeing that words weren't going to get through to the high-strung android. Instead she took steps forward ahead of the group, an action that had everyone looking on in confusion.

"Holiday, what are you doing?" came Six.

"Everyone just relax and let me do this." she said, stepping right toward Carmen.

Carmen saw this and took a tentative step back, "Don't get close to me lady. I'm not playing around her, I'll take you out if you try to…"

"You won't." replied Holiday, "And you haven't. Despite the chaos you've caused."

"What are you talking about?"

"You haven't really hurt anyone here, despite fighting half the base."

"Hello doc, remember me. Sucker punching robot hit me in the face, twice." came Rex.

"Fine. You haven't hurt anyone, much." Holiday amended, "In fact, I believe she even warned you Rex when she started unleashing that Jump Jet's payload."

Rex thought back on that, and indeed, Carmen's warning had come out just in time for him to defend himself. It was strange that she'd go out of way to do that despite opening fire in the first place.

"You don't want to hurt anyone." Holiday repeated, "You don't have it in you."

"Lady if you don't back off you'll be the first." came the gynoid, blade pointed right at Holiday.

"Then do it." came Holiday, standing right in front of the blade, her gaze unwavering.

Carmen continued to point the blade at Holiday, who for her part continued to look past it and at Carmen herself, right in her eyes. The gynoid's expression gradually changed and her hand slowly began to shake as she lost her nerve.

"Back off!" she yelled loudly, "I won't warn you again!"

Holiday still didn't move, though Six looked anxious from his position.

"Darn it!" barked Carmen, bringing the blade high above.

Sixx moved to intercept but instead of slashing at Holiday Carmen threw the blade to the ground, the sharp edge sticking into the floor. The other blade clattered on the ground as Carmen dropped it to her side. The android then glared down at Holiday who held a warm smile.

"Let me help you." Holiday said.

"Leave me alone. I just want to… be left alone."

"I know you're scared. But running away isn't going to help you."

"I'm not scared!" Carmen yelled, though more out of a sense of embarrassment than anger, "I just… I'm not going back into that box! I'm not some toy to be put on display!"

"You won't have to." replied Holiday, "And I don't want to put you in there."

"… what is your angle lady? What do you get out of helping me?" Carmen asked.

"Nothing. Save for helping someone who obviously needs it." she replied, "As well as being able to study such an advanced cybernetic construct such as yourself." she added with another smile.

"You might just be the first… honest liar I've ever met." replied Carmen, taking a deep sigh as she tried to relax, "I… really won't have to go back in that container?"

"I swear on my life. You'll never have to be put away again."

Carmen looked around at the assembled Providence forces, who for the most part had lowered their weapons, though still looked ready to jump to action at a moments notice.

"Fine." Carmen replied, putting her hands up, "I surrender."

"Good. Now was that so hard?" Holiday asked.

"Don't get smug lady. I still don't really trust you. But I don't have much of a choice now, do I? I might as well see where things go as I look for a good time to make my escape."

"That's up to you. And the name isn't 'lady', it's Doctor Rebecca Holiday."

Carmen scoffed, but a small smile had found its way to her face as she relented. And with that the Providence agents relaxed.

---

Back in the tower White Knight's face appeared on the overhead view screen once more where he was greeted by Holiday, Six, Rex, Bobo, and Jungle Cat. As well as the newest arrival, Carmen.

And a whole gaggle of Providence agents hanging around, just in case.

"Nice show of confidence there lady… er… Doctor Holiday." came Carmen, looking about at all the armed soldiers.

"I told them the threat passed." replied Holiday, "But what can you do?"

"I'm not entirely convinced of that." came White Knight, "Still, you managed to convince it to stand down and…"

"Her." replied Holiday, "I managed to convince her to stand down."

"Her?"

"Yeah 'her' as in Carmen Wright." came Carmen, "Don't forget Mr. Albino."

Rex couldn't help but chuckle at that one. White grunted, but he was still more concerned with the android's intentions, "What exactly does it… does she want?"

"Well for starters, an explanation on what exactly has been going on?" asked Carmen, "I've been asleep for nearly six years now and things have really changed in that time. I mean, you got Evos working for you?"

"Very well. I suppose we should start at the beginning." replied Holiday, "In the last six years the world has been dealing with the threat of Evo and us, Providence, were created to deal with the nanite problem." she began, weaving a tale of struggle and triumph against a world-wide epidemic that had threatened to destroy everything.

Carmen was told of the original intent of the Consortium and their bid to use nanites to become godly. She was told of how the nanite event had been triggered to prevent the powerful Meta-Nantes from falling into the Consortium's hands. She was told of Rex's amazing abilities; how he was able to communicate with his nanites, control certain machines, create his own, and even cure Evos by using his nanites to extract other nanites.

She was told of the heartache and happiness associated with the war against nanites, how monsters (both Evo and not) rose and how heroes were born.

And finally she was told how about a month ago that unending threat, the dread of Evo infestation had been wiped clean from the Earth as a single boy rose up and brought salvation.

"You're telling me he…" began Carmen, referring to a waving Rex, "… has 'cured' every single Evo on Earth?"

"Rex did have near unlimited power when he cured the world due to the influence of the complete Meta Nanite." replied Holiday, "But yes, he single-handedly turned the tide."

"Yeah baby, world-wide Cure Event changed things back to normal. Although there are a few Evo here and there still around. Not nothing this awesome guy can't handle though." he added, beaming with self pride.

Although he noticed Carmen staring at him in disbelief, "What? It's all true." he said.

"Why?" she asked.

"Well, why not? The world was in chaos and I had the power to change it, so I did." he replied.

"No. I mean, why would you… give up all that power?" she asked, "You could have done anything and yet… you gave it all away?"

Rex chuckled uneasily at that question and tried his best to answer, "Well I mean I could just say the reason I gave it up is because I didn't want all that power. But that's probably not the answer you're looking for." he said, sighing, "The answer isn't easy, nor is it simply just one. I kinda have a ton of reasons why I gave it all up." he said, looking about at the assembled group in the room, "Reasons for myself and reasons for others. But to be honest, the world doesn't need an untouchable sovereign looking over it controlling its every move. Too much responsibility for something like that, and too much temptation."

"Really?"

"Yeah, that's it really." replied Rex, "I guess it's probably not the most awe-inspiring tale of selflessness, but it's mine and that's the story I'm sticking to."

"… I see." she murmured.

Carmen was quiet for a time as she mulled over his meaning.

Soon though she spoke up, "So I suppose the world is safe now." she said, "No more Evos."

"Maybe. But the Consortium is still out there and I doubt their ambitions are done." replied White Knight, "Which is why it's imperative you tell us anything you can about their involvement."

"I can't really tell you much. I was 'asleep' for most of the time during the Nanite incident."

"But you were awake for some of it, right?" asked Rex, "Mind filling us in now?"

Carmen nodded, "Alright. I suppose I should give that much. It is only fair considering you got me up to speed." she said, taking a deep breath before beginning her tale, "It was actually not too long after the Nanite Project was up and running. The Renegade Project was an off-shoot of it. A collected effort to push the boundaries of cybernetic ingenuity. My father, Nathaniel Wright, was one of the scientists working during the Nanite Project. He wanted to go beyond the limits of modern cybernetic technology, he wanted machines that could think and feel for themselves, however the tech simply was not up to date a the time. However he, and several of the other scientists felt that the nanites could help push the envelop."

"Let me guess. Was one of those scientist named, Caesar Salazar?" Rex asked.

Carmen gave him an inquisitive look, "Yeah. How'd you know?"

"He's my brother." replied Rex, "And one of the originals in the Nanite Project. Along with my parents."

"Wait, your family… is the Salazars?" asked Carmen, "They were my father's best friends. He talked about them all the time, how they were savants of their time."

"Yeah, the family was pretty smart." replied Rex.

"So when they experimented on you after your accident it was in order to control nanites from a human perspective?" she asked.

"More like to save my life." replied Rex, "The other abilities were more of a side affect of the nanite infusion. In a way you could say I owe a lot to those little machines."

"My father always felt that the nanites could bridge gaps that most technology just couldn't reach. He felt that the nanites could give conscious to machines, he wanted them to be able to evolve." she replied, getting back to her story, "It's why he created a particular type of nanite. What he called, "The Omicron Nanites" she said.

"And those would be?" Holiday asked.

"In short, nanites that would learn from their surroundings and continuously grow, adapting as need be. They would be nanites that could program themselves." she replied, earning her some murmurs of surprise from the collected group, "My father hoped these nanites would pave the way for high end cybernetic technology and beyond."

"Did he ever complete his work?" Holiday asked.

"No. He died before he could finish, but he didn't trust anyone with what he had discovered so he hid away the information so that no human could abuse it." replied Carmen, "And considering the Consortium's main goal was to use nanites to rule the entire world, he was right to do so."

"Yes. I read of Professor Wright's death. It was sometime after the Nanite event."

"Yeah, at that time my father had decided to focus more on a military project, the Renegade Project. My father… didn't like war. He felt it was a waste of time and more importantly, lives. However he knew that fighting was unavoidable in this world so when he heard that the government wanted to replace live soldiers with robotic ones he jumped at the chance. Though his main reason for joining was to create robots like me, the Series 4 Combat Androids, or the CA4." Carmen replied, closing her eyes in deep thought, "Being the fourth in the series during the Renegade Project we were the most human of the bunch. However my father wanted more. He didn't just want the series to act human… but to feel it. He gave us emotions. He wanted to give us life. But in order to feel you must understand both happiness… and sadness. My 'brethren' couldn't understand that. The higher functions made them go crazy so they were shut down, permanently. I was the only one capable of processing the new sensations properly. Heck, I became the poster child for the project. I was suppose to show people how advanced cybernetic technology could be used to help people, to save lives." she said, "But some in the government didn't want a machine that could feel, that could feel remorse for taking lives on the battlefield. They just wanted an army that they could utterly control. They wanted free reign to fight a war without restriction." she said, sighing once more, "When my father realized their true intent he knew I would never really live a life, not the way he wanted me too. And he knew they would force him to reveal his secrets, which is why he locked them away. My father was arrested after that, though it was kept under wraps as to not arouse suspicion. Sometime later though, he died, and with nobody to my name my defensive systems were deactivated and I was put in storage."

"To keep someone from using you as a weapon." came Holiday.

Carmen scoffed, "More like they were scared of what I might do without a leash."

"Maybe with good reason." came White, "Even with your defense system deactivated you managed to cause some serious problems in my base, "A leash isn't a bad idea."

A sharp glare came from Carmen at the view screen, "You remind me of the General who spearheaded the project." she said, "And I didn't particularly like him."

"The feelings mutual."

The two shared an intense glare, but fortunately Holiday stepped in before anything could arise from the standoff, "When Providence was under control of Black Knight she used her connections to gain access to parts of the Renegade Project, which is where she got the Black Pawns from."

"Black Pawns?" asked Carmen.

"Robot dudes, that for a while I honestly thought were people." replied Rex, "You really couldn't even tell the difference until you took the masks off."

Carmen nodded, "Probably early prototypes taken from the CA4 series, before the implementation of emotional subroutines."

"And if I had to guess, they were stored along side you after the Renegade Project was shut down." replied Holiday.

Carmen nodded once more, "This Black Knight is no different than what many of the governmental officials were. They just wanted to use the weapon aspect of us. Nothing more."

"That also means that others like them, or like you, could be in the control of Black Knight?" replied White Knight, "And considering they were decommissioned because they were psychological failures that makes them being under her thumb even more dangerous."

"Even if it was for a hypocritical reason, the Renegade Project was shut down because humans just couldn't be trusted to use this technology correctly." replied Carmen, "I won't let this Black Knight abuse my brethren."

"Providence will deal with Black Knight. You aren't going anywhere. Is that understood?" came White Knight.

"Look Bleach Boy, I'm not a puppet. So you can take your orders and shove them up your…"

Holiday quickly put herself between Carmen and White Knight once more, "What she means to say is, this isn't the Renegade Project so we can't expect her to follow us blindly." replied Holiday, "Instead why don't we make you an offer?"

"An offer?" both Carmen and White Knight said in unison, something that surprised them.

"Yeah." came Holiday, "When you were deactivated all your defense systems were shut off to avoid having your abilities misused. What if we could reactivate them, give you full access to your systems?"

"… you think, you could do that?" pondered Carmen.

"I might not be on par with you father in terms of cybernetics, but I think in time I could crack the code that's holding you back. Besides, White Knight has a point." she added, and quickly explained, "You can't fight Black Knight as you are. Even your most basic special abilities have been barred and while you're stronger than any normal human, you wouldn't stand a chance against Black Knight and her forces. So instead, why not join Providence and let us help you release you full potential?"

"Just like that?" Carmen asked.

"Yes? Just like that Doctor Holiday?" asked White Knight.

"Yes. Just like that. And it would give me the opportunity to study you." she replied.

"Nobody does anything for nothing." came Carmen, "Your offer is just a little too good to be true."

"But it is."

Carmen still didn't look convinced.

"I just want to learn more about you and the CA4 series." Holiday added.

"I'm more interested in these supposed, "Omicron Nanites"." replied White Knight, "I can only imagine the chaos Black Knight could cause if she got control of something like that."

"Not gonna happen." came Carmen, "My father hid that information away where nobody would find it."

"You were found." came White Knight.

"Maybe. But those secrets are hidden, even deeper down. In the one place nobody would suspect."

Holiday thought about it. If Doctor Wright really didn't erase the data on these so called Omicron Nanites and the government didn't get ahold of the information while he was imprisoned, where could the data be? She didn't doubt the government would turn Wright's world upside down to find such sensitive data, particular if the Consortium hadtheir hands in things. She then looked to Carmen and it clicked.

"The one place nobody would suspect. The best place to keep sensitive data. You." came Holiday, spotting the tightened look from Carmen, "The data is in your head, isn't it?"

Carmen… looked away briefly, which only helped to confirm the doctor's suspicions.

"Your father downloaded what he created into your mind, knowing full well when you were deactivated nobody would be able to find it because it was already put away." Holiday continued, "But I think, Black Knight might have figured out the ruse. That's why she wanted to get a hold of you so badly."

"… my father, made me promise that no matter what, this data couldn't fall into the wrong hands. He said it could be revolutionary, not just for the advancement of cybernetics, but the world itself. Although I didn't have a clue what he meant. But I still promised him and I intend to keep that promise." replied Carmen, "My father was imprisoned and died just because there were greedy humans out there who wanted to abuse his work. I will not let his sacrifice be in vain."

"Black Knight won't stop until she gets a hold of you." came White Knight, "Just having those secrets makes you too important."

"She can try all she wants. And I'd rather destroy myself before I gave that up to her."

"Let's not go to that extreme, shall we?" asked Holiday, "I know that you father didn't want the data on the Omicron Nanites to fall into the hands of those who would abuse that power, but how about providing that information to Providence in exchange for us help you?"

Carmen snorted, "You're not all that different than the guys at the Renegade Project. You really think I'm suppose to trust you with this kind of sensitive nanite technology?"

"Well look at me." came Rex, stepping into the conversation, "I'm practically a nanite factory and I'm not being used and abused here. Providence can be a little overly paranoid about stuff, but it's honestly out there to help people."

Carmen thought on that, "Well… you did give up all that power, and as powerful as the Omicron Nanites could be they don't come close to the Meta Nanties."

"You can trust us to help you, and you can trust us to keep your secrets safe." replied Holiday, "What do you say?"

"I'm… interested. But what about you Le Blanc?" asked Carmen.

White Knight set his thoughts in motion. He looked about the assembled group in the room, his mind reminiscent of past events. Then taking a deep sigh he gave his answer.

"Fine. But if this is going to work you going to have to join Providence and follow my orders, but not because you are a machine. This isn't a summer camp, this is a military installation and I expect some degree of correspondence within it."

"Am I a prisoner?" she asked.

"You will be a agent and like any agent you will be free to quit whenever you like. But I doubt you'll get far by yourself." he said.

"Hmph… even if I'm free, I don't have many options." Carmen groused.

"Hopefully by working with Providence we can provide you with some." replied Holiday.

"Yeah man, I turned out fine." Rex replied.

Carmen looked about the room, pondering her coming decision. Whether or not she could trust these "people" with her father's final wishes. But they had a point, without her abilities she'd stand little chance in the world and while Providence contained aspects she didn't like, heck couldn't stand, she had little choice. They were at least willing to help her, and at the moment they were giving her the best offer she could get.

"Fine." she replied, illicitness a smile from Holiday, "I'll join your army. And in return I'll hand over my father's data if you manage to turn all my systems back online."

"Then we have an agreement?"

"Yes… sir."

White Knight nodded, "Very well. Welcome to Providence, Special Agent Wright."

Seeming to realize something Rex brought a hand to his chin in a thoughtful manner, "Huh… you know something. As long as I've been here you've never referred to me as "Special Agent Salazar"." replied Rex.

"Oh… there are so many reasons for that Rex." replied White Knight.

"What's that suppose to mean?" he asked, whirling around when he heard snickering from Bobo and Jungle Cat.

"Well then Milk Cut, what is my first assignment as an official Providence Agent?" asked Carmen.

"… something tells me I might regret this decision." muttered White.

---

Within the Tower room of the Petting Zoo the gynoid Carmen Wright lay upon a table within a specialized scanner device, usually used to monitor Rex's condition, both physically and nanoscopic. Holiday was using it to commence with an in-depth scan of Carmen's inner workings and the sight upon the doctor's face as the readings came in was as if she was a kid in a candy store.

"This is amazing. My initial scans only scratched the surface of your cybernetic interface. Doctor Wright really did trying to create you with the expressed purpose of making you as close to human as "physically" possible." she said, the scan moving from head to toe and back again, "You even have a food processing system within you… not unlike a human digestive system."

"Wait, she can eat?" asked a surprised Rex, "I just thought we'd have to plug her into the wall or something. I sure we got an extension cord lying around.

"I don't really need to eat, but my father told me that to really understand emotions I had to be able to experience the human senses. Visual and audio reception are one thing, even physical stimulation… but to smell the soft scent of a rose, or to taste the bitter sweetness of coffee rolling off your tongue, only be experiencing those sensations can one truly feel." replied Carmen.

"Huh? Okay then." replied Rex, nodding in understanding, though moments later an idea struck him, "But if you can eat, what do you do with it after you're done? You know, when you gotta go to the…"

"Hey! That's private!" Carmen yelled, looking both embarrassed and put off.

"Rex, you shouldn't ask a girl those kinds of questions." Holiday chastised.

A sheepish chuckled reverberated from his throat at being called out as he tried to laugh it off.

Holiday just gave him a good-natured head shake before getting back to the read-outs, "But what is really astounding is your power source. It's unbelievable."

"So what, she got a super Duracell battery in there or something?" Rex asked, getting a chuckle from Bobo.

Carmen didn't share in the humor, but decided to hold her tongue for the moment.

"Duracell? Hardly. This power source is more like a miniature particle accelerator."

"And that's surprising, why?" Rex asked.

"I've never seen a particular accelerator at this size generate this level of energy." she replied, "At these readings she generates far more power than she actually needs, you could power a good chunk of Providence with her core."

Rex let out a low whistle, genuinely surprised at the revelation, "Wow girl, you're packing."

Her expression took a cheerful tone, "I am one of a kind." she replied.

"And from the looks of this, anatomically correct." replied Bobo, nodding with a mischievous smile, "So she's definitely 'packing'."

That cheerful expression turned abash, "You dirty monkey!" she barked from the machine.

"Bobo, leave her alone." came Holiday, shaking her head again, this time in disgust.

With a hearty chuckle the chimp swung away, taking position aside Rex and Jungle Cat, the latter of whom rolled his eyes at the chimp's crude humor.

"So Doc, you find the switch that can turn her powers back on yet?" Rex asked.

"It's not like that." replied Holiday, "From what I can gather her systems are linked to a built-in "Stand-by Code" and you need the code in order to cease the stand-by order." replied Holiday.

"Unfortunately I don't know the code or I'd put it in myself." replied Carmen, "My father probably didn't tell me so that nobody would be able to just hack me and unlock my special abilities."

"I see. So how are we gonna unlock them then?" Rex asked.

"It won't be easy, we don't know if the code is a number, or sequence, or voice response, or input command." replied Holiday, "As far as I can tell the only sure-fire way to do so would be to hack Carmen."

"Hey! Just because I'm willing to go with you guys doesn't mean I want you poking around in my head." came Carmen, "Besides, what would stop you from just grabbing the information on the Omicron Nanites anyway?"

"Don't worry, I didn't plan on doing that. Not only would that be a massive invasion of your privacy I'm not sure I could successfully navigate your processor. The level of computation in your head, I wouldn't even have an idea as to where to start."

"So there isn't a way to do it?" Rex asked.

Holiday sighed, trying to think of a solution, "Her systems are just too complicated to try and unlock all at once."

"Hey, you come with an instruction manual or something?" Rex asked Carmen, "Like Socket-A connects to ball-point 2-1 or something." he said, small chuckle issuing forth.

Bobo joined him in the laugh, with Carmen giving a grunt in response.

"Ha ha, hilarious. Laugh it up Evo boy, you're gonna need some assembly required soon."

"Rex, leave her be." Holiday chastised, then seemed to realize something, "Although you might be onto something. she said, going back to the scans of Carmen's body, "We might not be able to unlock her full body at once because of the connection between it and her stand-by mode, but each of the individual pieces of her system are only controlled by very rudimentary processes. Theoretically it should be possible to unlock those parts separately, thus bypassing the stand-by code."

"So we poke and prod different parts of her body until we get a twitch?" Rex asked.

Holiday nodded, "That's the best course. What do you say Carmen?"

"Well, I want to unlock my abilities and so far that seems to be the best answer anyone can come up with, so go ahead Doc, start poking." Carmen replied.

"It's not like I'm going to jab you with a stick or anything." replied Holiday, "I'll need to procure the proper tools to perform the investigation carefully."

"A ratchet and screwdriver isn't enough?" asked Rex, "I'm sure we've got an oversized wrench lying around somewhere."

That one got even Jungle Cat chuckling.

"You having fun over there?" asked Carmen, trying her level best to keep calm.

"Since we're teammates now I can't get my payback for all those sucker punches you gave me. Me ragging on you is the best I can do to even the score."

"Ah I see, mad that I handed you your backside on a silver platter." came Carmen.

Rex leveled a glare at her, "Sucker punched."

"Sure."

The snickering of Bobo and Jungle Cat grew louder, though this time directed at Rex.

"What are you petting zoo rejects snickering for? I tanned your hides too." came Carmen.

That had them scowling soon enough.

"We all underestimated her." replied Six, "Machine or not, you have military training, don't you?"

"Huh, you noticed did you? Well yeah, the Renegade Project was military so its stands to reason I was given military training." replied Carmen, "Although maybe that's a misconception consider your guys are part of a paramilitary." she began, referring to Rex, Bobo, and Jungle Cat, "Maybe the requirements in Providence are a little lax."

Those scowls deepened.

"Stop teasing Carmen." came Holiday, to which Carmen just laughed it off.

"So Doctor, these specialty tools that you need, something tells me they aren't in Providence?" asked Sixx.

"No and there are only a few places in the world that'll have what I need to work with. We'll have to put a word out and hope we can acquire them." replied Holiday, ending her scanning of Carmen, "You'll have to wait a time longer."

"Maybe, but I'm farther along than I have been in six years." Carmen said, "Progress is progress, even if it isn't the the most direct."

"Very open minded thinking." replied Holiday.

"My father alway said that. He told me that you don't discover something because you planned for it, but because you reached out into the dark and took hold. You don't always know what to expect, but sometimes thats the best option." Carmen replied, "Still, he also told me to be wary of people, considering anyone can wear a mask of sincerity but few people emulate it. It's one of the reasons he was so reclusive."

"To be honest, Doctor Wright wasn't the most well known scientist of the time, but I'd really like to know more about him." Holiday asked.

"My father might not have been very famous… but he was one of a kind." replied Carmen, stepping off from the exam table.

"He had to be to create someone like you." came Holiday.

Carmen smiled at that, but there was a sort of sadness to that smile that Holiday caught onto.

"So I guess I need to just wait around until you get these parts in." replied Carmen, "Guess it'll take a while."

"Maybe not as long as we think." replied Holiday, "There is somewhere we can go right now that might have a good majority of what we need."

"Where?"

Little less than an hour later a Providence drop ship arrived at a massive structure, a strange facility with many spires arranged in a circular web-like pattern..

"Huh, the Consortium's old hang huh?" asked Rex as the drop ship hovered overhead.

"Well, it does contain a lot of high-end equipment considering how much money the Consortium put into it." Holiday explained, "And now that its under Providence control its been converted into a true research facility, one your brother heads."

"Caesar Salazar." replied Carmen within the drop ship, "I wonder if he's changed?"

"You've met my brother before?" Rex asked.

"A while ago, just before the Nanite Event. He came to meet my father to discuss programming his own artificial intelligence. I only met him that one time, but he left an impression."

"He does do that." replied Rex with a chuckle, "Hopefully he'll remember you. Then again, considering how my brother thinks he might not."

"Kinda hoping for the latter." Carmen murmured, a murmur that garnered her a strange look from Holiday.

The team plus Holiday disembarked from the dropship and walked up the path toward the massive facility. After getting clearance from Providence officers they trekked inside, following the main hallway toward the main wing; the Advanced Research Node.

Within one of the labs they found several figures within, the most obvious of them being there veritable Caesar Salazar himself. The brother of Rex was donned in large protective goggles as she stared intently at a revolving machine that generated a bright flash of energy. A couple of feet away at a computer console sat a man known as Peter Meecham, another world renowned scientist. Meecham also wore goggles, though his attention was more on the read out on the console than whatever the machine before him was doing. And to Salazar's right stood a man known as Gabriel Rylander, another renowned scientist. Although he "stood" in a more figurative understanding, since technically most of his body didn't exist. With a special chamber Rylander's form was kept preserved as his physical atoms were held together, giving him a ghostly visage.

Rylander was the first to notice the arrival of the group, especially so when he noticed the team's newest addition.

"It can't be… Carmen." he breathed, astonished for a moment, though that quickly turned to elation, "Carmen! It is you, oh joyous day indeed!"

"Hello… Professor Rylander."

"Oh, I haven't seen you in so long. Not after the accident."

"Accident?" questioned Holiday, though Carmen didn't answer as Peter Meecham looked up with an astonished look on his face as well.

"Wait? Carmen? You mean Nathaniel's kid?" asked Meecham, pulling aside his goggles as the machine aside him started to power down, "But you're suppose to still be in the hospital."

"Yeah… I am." she replied, "But then again I'm not the same one you know." replied Carmen.

"No, you're not." came Caesar, stepping into the conversation and taking a close look at Carmen, "You're… CA4-6M-09N." he replied, "So Wright finished you."

"Yeah, he did."

"Carmen… there's more to your story than you told us, isn't there?" Holiday asked.

Carmen nodded slowly, turning away from everyone's gaze in the process, "There's… a reason why I was the most emotionally stable construct of the CA4 series. Unlike the others, whose personalities were built from the ground up, and thus had wild inconsistencies, my personality was… borrowed."

"Borrowed? Like someone gave it to you?" Rex asked.

"My father did." she said.

"You had a donor personality. That's why you're cognitive functions are so stable, because they came from someone already stable." replied Holiday.

"If that's the case then…" gasped Rylander, coming to a startling realization, "I knew that Nathaniel was devastated after the accident, but I would never have guessed he'd go this far."

"And people wonder why I'm so protective of my own daughter." Meecham added.

And Caesar drove the point home, "CA4-6M-09N, the personality you were given… it's was Wright's daughter, correct?"

Carmen nodded, "It was not so long after the nanite event. At that time I had a very simple processing unit, so that I didn't fall prey to the same psychosis as my brethren. I was more of a point and click kind of bot. Then at some point, while my father was visiting his family… there was an Evo attack. Since it was of the first of its kind the world was in a panic so the Evo rampaged for a while that day. My father was there… and so was… Carmen, the true Carmen Wright."

"Yes, I heard of that. A terrible day indeed." replied Rylander.

"She survived the attack, but Carmen was put in a coma, a coma she would never awaken from."

"Nathaniel fell apart after that." replied Rylander, "He was already estranged from his wife, so losing his daughter like that devastated him. I tried to contact him but he shut me out. But to think he'd actually transfer her consciousness into one of his androids. I didn't think it was possible."

"It's possible alright. I'm living proof, so to speak." Carmen replied, "But it's weird, this feeling."

"What do you mean?" asked Rex.

"I have all her memories, her personality, her life… it's all in me, but it's not mine." replied Carmen, "Maybe it's just the dissonance I feel from no longer being organic but instead of feeling like myself, like Carmen Wright, I feel like I'm just… an actor playing the role."

"Whoa." murmured Rex.

"The real Carmen Wright is more or less dead. I'm affectively her stunt-double. Although, I'm pretty spry for a corpse." she said with a wry laugh, "My father tried to bring me back… but to be honest, Carmen was already gone long before. It wasn't until afterward did he finally realized that. But I don't hate him for what he did. He built me, he gave me life, and he cared for me, even if I was just a facsimile for his real daughter. My father was many things, and he had his faults, but he was a good person all the same."

"Indeed he was. And you cannot fault a man in desperation for doing anything he can for those he loves." replied Rylander.

"So that's the story." replied Carmen, "That's my life."

"That is… incredible." came Holiday, at a lost for words.

"Whoa dude… heavy." came Rex, his own take on things.

As the mood within lay heavy with the revelations, the situation outside would soon take a turn for the worst. High above a drop ship flew through the clouds, though it wasn't of Providence origin. It was the dark transport commandeered by Black Knight. And sure enough, within the cockpit of that monstrosity was Black Knight herself. She pressed a button on the console, engaging an autopilot for the ship.

Around her were the rest of the Consortium, though she paid them little mind as she got up and walked toward the hanger bay.

"Stay here and stay out of trouble." she told them.

"Wait, you're just leaving us here?" inquired Haden-Scott

"Yeah chickadee, you can't leave us out of this rodeo. We ain't a bunch of prairie dogs sticking to our burrows. How's that fair?" came Roswell.

"First you had us rushing, then you're leaving us out of the loop." came Reddick.

The silent Xanubian nodded to this, irate at feeling as if he was being treated as a child.

To Black Knight's credit she simply sighed at their complaints, and answered in kind, "You four aren't exactly the most well polished team and I'm looking for something very specific at the heart of this facility. I won't have time to hold your hands while I make my way through." she replied, pushing pass the group, "Besides, a few Black Pawns and the Quadruped will be more than enough to deal with the sparse security, at least before Providence arrives." she said, looking up at the behemoth of a battle tank, "But even so I'm not one to go into a fight without some reassurance so I put a little something extra in the tank if things really do go south."

The group around her shared a look, mumbling as if wanting to argue, but finding no real way to counter her argument they relented.

"All and all it shouldn't take me too long to find what I'm looking for." she said, pressing a button on the side of the panel, to which the bomb bay doors beneath began to unfurl.

When the doors were fully opened, she and several Black Pawns stood at the bomb bay doors. Black Knight gave the group a curt wave before hopping out of the ship, followed by her Black Pawns and the release clamps holding the Quadruped to disengage.

In free fall Black Knight, her pawns, and her battle tank sailed toward the facility, with Black Knight soon unleashing her flight pack from her back. The Black Pawns had small hover boards that guided their descent while the Quadruped had small jump jets in its limbs that slowed its fall as the group zeroed in on the facility.

At ground level the gaggle of Providence agents on guard duty noticed a growing shadow on the ground. Looking up they took horrified expressions behind their masks at the falling adversaries. They dove for their lives as Black Knight and her forces touchdown, hard.

Within the facility Holiday had brought a hand to Carmen's shoulder, "Regardless of where you got it from, you still have consciousness Carmen. You're feel to think, feel, and live however you choose."

"I'm not so sure about that Doc." came Carmen, feeling despondent, "Sometimes I wonder what the point is? Maybe I was better off crated away, that way I wouldn't have to think about the fake life I live."

"Carmen, don't think that way. You have a lot to offer the world."

"Yeah, well the Omicron Nanites are a big deal."

Holiday shook her head to that, "That's not what I'm talking about. What I mean is…" she began, but was cut off by a massive rumble rushing through the facility.

"What was that?" called Six after the tremor had passed.

Caesar took to the head, going to a nearby console and pressing in a series of commands. On a small view screen nearby a picture of the outside of the facility came into view and what Caesar saw quickly worried him.

"Oh my." he murmured in shock, "This does not bode well."

The others took to looking at the screen, quickly matching his expression. The Quadruped and Black Pawns had engaged with the Providence forces outside. And though they did their level best to repel the mechanical beast they were little match for its armaments. With their bullet bouncing harmlessly off its armor the monster mecha returned fire, scattering the outmatched forces with a few well placed shots.

Rex visibly groused, "Oh come on, this guy again?"

"Is that a Quadruped?" asked Carmen, "Someone actually got that thing working?"

"You know about it?" asked Rex.

"We had one stationed at the base where the Renegade Project was set up, and while not technically part of the project the Quadruped was installed with a very basic A.I." she replied, "Though to be honest that thing is more like an animal than a person. And the subsequent tests didn't go over so well. It couldn't be controlled once it got going."

"Then Black Knight managed to tame it." replied Holiday.

"But why she sic her attack hound on us? What's the point?" asked Rex.

"Is she looking for something here?" Six asked, attention on the group of scientist.

"I can't imagine what." replied Rylander, "Providence was very thorough in its search of the facility."

"Yeah, you picked this place clean save for the equipment we need." came Meecham.

"… not entirely I believe." replied Caesar, earning him the attention of the others, "There is the underground vault." he replied.

"What 'underground vault'?" asked Meecham.

"During my tenure under Black Knight's leadership the vault was constructed to house rather… unstable nanite creations." he replied, "While Black Knight's focus was on acquiring the Meta-Nantes she also requested I investigate alternative means if the Meta-Nanites couldn't be procured. That included developing other nanites, that while not anywhere near on par with the Meta, could significantly boost the abilities of those who could manipulate Nanites."

"You wouldn't be suggesting anything like the Omega, would you?" Rylander asked.

"Not precisely. The Omega is one of a kind and to be honest, near impossible to replicate." replied Caesar, "But that doesn't mean that other nanites with varied abilities could not be developed that could match that of the Omega."

"And you didn't bother to tell us any of this, why?" asked Meecham.

"I didn't think it relevant. Especially after the Meta-Nantes were deactivated and the world cured." Caesar replied.

"Well it is now." came Meecham, "Thanks for the heads up."

"You really need to work on that habit of keeping things to yourself." Rylander added, to which an embarrassed Caesar sighed.

"In hindsight it probably wasn't a good idea to leave those nanites be."

Another tremor ripped through the facility, with the video outside showcasing the Quadruped breaking inside.

"So she's trying to take this place?" asked Rex.

"I don't think so." replied Six, "One mech wouldn't be enough and she knows that Providence would send backup to reclaim it. My guess, the mech is just a distraction while she personally reclaims her nanites."

"Then take us to this "vault" so that we can stop her." came Holiday.

Caesar nodded and was quick to lead the way with most of the others following, save for Rylander and Meecham, the latter not wanting to get shot at by an overgrown attack dog and the former simply unable to move from his rooted spot, considering his condition.

In a clammer of footsteps the group ran down the hallways behind Caesar, the scientist explaining some of the peculiarities of the nanites he was told to commission.

"One type was developed to boost the physical abilities of the subject, without the need to mutate their biological forms, while another was meant to attract nanites into a condensed form, something resembling the construction of Rex's builds. And then that was one with a very amazing, if not very unstable, quirk that…"

"Thanks for the down-lo bro, but maybe we should secure them before we get into their stats sheet." Rex interrupted.

Caesar chuckled sheepishly, "Yes. Yes indeed. That would be more prudent at the moment. But don't worry they are right around…" he began, but was cut off when a massive explosion ripped through the hallway.

The wall caved in from the blast and as the debris began to settle a massive form stomped through the newly created hole. Bodies of defeated Providence Agents were splayed out haphazardly as Black Pawns stepped over them.

"Perfect." muttered Rex, grimacing as a shadow that loomed above the group, "Fido's back to play."

Upon spotting the group the demented hound growled at them, and swiveled its weapons into attack position. And while it locked onto them another familiar face stepped into view, Black Knight.

"Well, well. What do we have here?" she said upon noticing the others, "I should have guessed this wouldn't be easy. You all have an annoying knack for being around to interfere with my plans."

"What can we say Black Knight?" came Rex, throwing his hand forward to unleash his blade, "We just love putting you in check."

She glowered at the young boy and upon scanning the group Black Knight's scowl deepened, "And it appears you released CA4-6M-09N from its containment unit. I was hoping to have the android programmed properly like the Quadruped here."

"Look lady, I'm not some automated stove you can set to your liking. And the name is Carmen Wright!" Carmen sneered.

And Black Knight sneered right back, "Oh my, you even named the little doll. How adorable."

Carmen ground her teeth at the mocking and clenched her fist in bubbling rage. However Black Knight didn't have time to banter with the forces of Providence and ordered her Black Pawns to engage. Then with a quick turn to her mech, followed by a "Rip them apart.", she set it upon them.

The coming roar from the Quadruped shook the hall and the vicious automaton lunged forward with weapons bared.

The group scattered as the walking tank scrambled about, swiping and shooting into the fray. Rex leapt up to stop it from massacring anyone, delivering a powerful haymaker to its side. With treads scraping against the ground the mech kept its balance, whilst swiveling its main cannons around to target Rex.

Cannon blasts bombarded the area, throwing up a veil of smoke surrounding the boy, as well as cutting him off from the others. However before the dust could settle an electrically charged mechanical tendril whipped out, scoring a nasty hit across the beast's snout.

Rex stepped forward with his Blaster Caster, the energy from the storage backpack being fed into the whip weapon.

"Back, back I say! Back!" he ordered, snapping at the beast several times with his weapon.

Like some sort of weird lion taming act Rex forced the Quadruped to back step, using the hallways to his advantage by staying just out of line from the main cannons.

Meanwhile the Black Pawns kept Providence contained at a choke point in the facility while Black Knight hurried down a nearby hallway.

"Is the vault down this way?" asked Holiday, firing off a few shots from her handgun before ducking back around the corner to avoid being mowed down by the return fire of the pawns.

At her side Caesar, who was hunched in a ball to avoid the fusillade nodded, "Yes. It leads to a special panel that opens up a passage to the vault. And with her abilities it'll take her little time to bypass the security."

"Then we can't be held up here. We've got to push through!" barked Six, flinging out something from his palm.

It was a small shuriken that sailed through the air amidst the gunfire toward a nearby Black Pawn. It didn't down the bot, having caught it in the shoulder, but it forced it back. However the other pawns kept the pressure up despite this.

"I might have a chance." came Carmen, "If I make a break for it my armor should protect me from the worst of their gunfire. And I should be able to get pass them."

Holiday looked worried, "Even if you do you'll have to fight Black Knight yourself."

"Hey, I fought Rex pretty well, I think I can handle a copy cat." Carmen replied.

Six nodded, realizing that they had little time to debate, "Alright we'll cover you while you make your move."

She gave a nod of her own before steeling herself for her run.

"Now!" barked Six, throwing a handful of shuriken down the hall.

The whizzing blades scored hits, both critical and not, against the Black Pawns while a volley of laser shots from Bobo pummeled the area around them.

The Black Pawns staggered at the assault and Carmen made her move, making a mad dash down the hall in her metallic fleet-footed steps. The Black Pawns recovered as quickly as they were able, firing off shots at the approaching Carmen, who brought her arm up in defend.

"Good thing I have control over some of my systems, like my pain receptors." she said as bullets bounced off of her.

Fortunately bullets from behind, courtesy of Bobo and Holiday, gave her some much needed backup, and with some deft maneuvers which involved her running up and bouncing off the wall, she launched herself at her pass most of her enemies. He final leap had a Black Pawn unceremoniously caught underfoot with a twin-footed stomp as Carmen used it as a cushion as she landed.

"Sorry about that! But you're in the way!" came Carmen.

The other pawns moved to retaliate but Carmen was already on the move before they could attack, and subsequently giving chase was halted as more gunfire came from down the hall.

Back to Rex, the nanite boy was having a time dealing with the Quadruped. Even though it was in a more enclosed area the mech wasn't giving Rex any leeway in battle. It attacked with both armaments and body, shooting at Rex when he retreated and trying to crush him if he closed the distance. It had his number.

"You sure live up to your reputation for fighting Evos." he groused.

Rex knew this and lamented at his situation. The battle could go on for quite a while.

"I'm bringing you down Fido, one way or another!" growled Rex, leaping forward once more.

A double fisted punch from Rex knocked the Quadruped for a loop, then using his Punk Busters he followed up with a stomp upon its head that knocked its balance from it for a few seconds. He switched out his hands for his blade, setting it whirling in buzzsaw mode but the Quadruped managed rise back up before he could bring it down. Rex still managed to scrap alongside the beast, breaking through its armor and causing sparks to bounce about. It staggered from the hit and Rex took the initiative and leapt once more atop it, bringing a hand down upon its head.

His nanites rushed out, infecting the mech's systems. However upon reaching the polymer shield they stopped in their tracks. And no matter how hard Rex pushed he simply couldn't get the nanites to go much further pass the shield.

This time the mech wrung its head, throwing Rex into a nearby wall. Machine guns pummeled the area around him moments later, but his Smack Hands protected him. Ceasing the gunfire the Quadruped slammed its grappling claws into Rex and bared down on him with its superior size and strength.

"Perfect, can't shut the thing down no matter how hard I try. And I'm getting thrown around like a chew toy over here!" he growled, pushing back with all his might, "Guess I have not choice but to play around with you until you run out of juice."

And back down the hall a certain Black Knight stood along a dead end in the hallway. However as she placed a hand over the wall her nanites scrambled alongside it, revealing a console within. The nanites interfaced with it, breaking the lock which resulted in the wall itself pulling up from hidden gears connected to it. The lifting wall revealed a small room, not unlike many of the laboratories that dotted the facility.

However before she could step inside Black Knight heard approaching footsteps. And just as she turned around she saw Carmen come into view.

"Hold her." came Black Knight to her Black Pawns, four in total, "Destroy her if you have too."

They nodded at her commands and stepped up as she walked into the room; then using her nanites to reseal it.

"Boys, can talk about this?" came Carmen as she stepped up, "I mean, we're from the same series after all. We're technically kin." she replied.

Two of the Black Pawns readied their blades while the other two primed their weapons to fire, unleashing a bullet storm on the approaching gynoid.

"Guess that's a no!" squealed Carmen, hugging the wall to avoid the first sweep and diving forward as the second wave battered her. The bullets ended as the sword-wielding pawns struck on, the first coming at her with an overhead swing that she managed to block with her arms.

She did well holding it back, but the second came around with a horizontal slice, forcing her to divert one of her arms to the side to block the blow. She tried mightily to push back, but their strength was more than she could handle despite her strong armor. She was forced to a knee with the black blades scrapping along her arms.

The gun-toting Black Pawns started to make their way over to her, to try and contain her but Carmen wasn't about to let that happen. Shifting her weight and her arms she pulled herself into a flip that threw her sword attackers off balance, a move she followed up with by grabbing hold of the wrist of the nearest pawn with one hand driving the underside of her own palm into the face of it.

The shocking hit scrambled it sensors and caused it to release its grip on its blade. She then kicked it aside just as the one beside her aimed to take her head. Quick reflexes saved her at the last moment, grabbing hold of the dropped blade and bring it up to block the blow. She slowly rose to her feet, trying to gain the advantage over her adversary, but soon noticed the approaching pawns leveling their rifles on her.

Just as it was about to open fire Carmen pulled her weight back, which caused her sword opponent to lurch forward from the sudden lost of resistance… right into the line of fire.

Bullets rang out, pelting the Black Pawn, and unlike Carmen its armor wasn't near dense enough to withstand the gunfire. It was riddled with bullets, most puncturing vital systems, soon destroying it. With a quick step forward she kick the pawn into one of the gun pawns, toppling them both. Then with spin and a twist she flung the black blade at the other gun pawn, the weapon flying tried and true to piercing its chest, rupturing the main power supply.

She was immediately assailed by the sword-less pawn she had kicked away earlier, but without any assistance Carmen was able to grab it and pull it up and over her shoulder, slamming it into the ground. She followed up with a pull back and punch, slamming her fist into its core.

The toppled gun pawn pushed its busted ally off itself and leveled its rifle, but Carmen had already brought her defeated enemy to bear, using it as a makeshift shield as she ran straight at her attacker. The gunfire finished off the bot while Carmen made excellent use of it as a battering ram, slamming the gun pawn into the wall with it.

It pushed back to try and bring its gun to bear but Carmen struck out, her fist crashing across its head with resounding force. Both Black Pawn bodies slumped to the ground, with the gun pawn still trying to fire upon Carmen. Through its damaged screen it watched as Carmen brought her fist down hard, bringing an end to it once and for all.

Pulling herself to her feet she looked around the area, making sure all he enemies were down for the count. She didn't necessarily look happy though at the scene. But she didn't have time to be introspective, instead she walked pass them, grabbing up the blade embedded in the chest of one as she stepped up to the wall.

She slashed at the wall, gouging a 'X' shape into the wall, then she punched at the weakened wall, breaking through to reveal the control console within. The console screen awaited a passcode, something Carmen didn't have. Fortunately her USB interface was more than enough for the situation, bringing out a finger that swiveled around into the hacking tool.

Upon jacking into the wall she quickly went through the console controls and after a couple of moments of interface she managed to clear the okay signal, granting her access.

Within the hidden vault Black Knight was filling a duffle bag with several nanite vials, each aglow with different colors. However her attention was diverted upon hearing the wall pull up. And as she turned she saw Carmen storm inside, blade at the forefront.

"Don't think you can just make a smash and grab and leave like its nothing Black Knight." she said, her grip strong on the black blade, "Not if I can help it."

"Hmph… why are you even working for Providence? You should have enough cognitive functions to realize that they have no real use for you. Do you honestly think they want to help you?" came Black Knight.

"No, I don't." came Carmen, "I can't even really trust them… but, they might not be all that they appear… so I'm willing to follow along with them, for now."

"I was hoping to obtain you and Wright's research in one piece, but you're not so valuable that I'm not willing to cut you down if you get in my way." came Knight.

"You can try." came Carmen, rushing forward.

Knight swung her free hand out, bringing to bear her own blade, a glowing energy sword that erupted from her forearm. She then clashed with Carmen, the two blades grinding against one another.

"You can't beat me." came Knight.

"You think that just because you can build machines from your body you're better than me, a machine?" Carmen snapped back, "I managed to hold my own against Rex."

"No… you can't beat me because…" came Black Knight, pushing back Carmen with a mighty heave, then swinging out to snap Carmen's blade like a toothpick, "I'm better than him." Knight replied, grinning wickedly at the shocked look that ran across Carmen's face.

Carmen was torn from her shock though as the energy blade loomed overheard. The gynoid managed to dive away just as the amethyst blade came down, cleaving the ground at the spot she had just been in. Black Knight swung out again, forcing Carmen into a run as she ducked for safety. Fortunately a nearby cabinet took the hit that probably would have lobbed her head off.

In desperation she flung her broken blade at Black Knight who swiped at the useless weapon, knocking it aside. But that momentary distraction allow gave Carmen the time to retaliate with a rising upper cup. Black Knight caught the attack in the chin, a blow that snapped her head back sharply.

A grin of victory appeared on Carmen's face as Black Knight staggered, even looking like she might keel over from the hit. But that smile soon faded when Black Knight slowly pulled forward, a wicked grin of her own adorning her features.

"Not bad." she said, before her other hand erupted into a large mechanical fist, aglow with energy, "My turn."

Carmen tried to backpedal but Black Knight's fist extended along the room length, slamming headlong into the gynoid and propelling her to the other side. She shattered nearby cabinets and slumped down the wall in a heap. Her vision swam, which to her was static bursts appearing in her optical sensors.

"You honestly thought you could take me?" came Black Knight as she leisurely made her way over, "You don't have any of your defensive systems online, you are barely stronger than a normal human and as you can see, I'm far beyond normal."

Carmen tried to stand, but her balance was off, though she craned her neck upward as Black Knight steadied her blade, "I'll try not to damage you too much. Still don't want to miss the chance of retrieving your data."

But then Black Knight heard footsteps and turned only to see a gun pointed at her. Shots rang out toward Knight, who only just managed to block them, though they forced her away from Carmen.

"Stay away from her!" barked Doctor Holiday, pointing a smoking barrel at Black Knight.

Held in her palms was one of the assault rifles held by the Black Pawns, picked up by Holiday as she ran into the room. Holiday zeroed the weapon's sights on Black Knight, her gaze unwavering.

"Holiday…" growled Black Knight, peering at the scientist over her glowing blade, "Why don't you leave now before you regret it."

"Why don't you leave Carmen alone before I put a couple of rounds into you?"

"What do you care about this thing? It's a machine, a puppet. You press a button and give it orders." came Knight, blade held out in front of her, "No matter how much it might imitate a human, all it ever will be is a machine."

Said "machine" was beginning to come out of her daze, slowing looking between Black Knight and Holiday, then laying her eyes upon the broken sword blade.

"You haven't a clue what Carmen really is." came Holiday, narrowing her gaze, "Now back off!"

Black Knight glowered at the scientist, raising her blade to attack, "This is going to be messy."

However before she could launch herself at Holiday, Black Knight she noticed movement at her side. Carmen had leapt up and slash at her with the broken piece of sword. Black Knight managed to avoid the strike bodily, but her duffle bag was cut through and in her scramble to get away a few glowing tubes fell out.

Black Knight tried to grab them up but Holiday opened up, letting loose a stream of bullets that forced the nanite manipulator to create a large glowing fist to block them. And at her side Carmen came to finish things up, broken blade gripped tightly in palm.

With a bellowing "Enough!" Black Knight slammed her fist into the ground, shaking the room and sending debris up into the air. This threw both Holiday and Carmen off balance and Black Knight used their faltering to make a break for it, holding to her torn bag to keep anymore vials from spilling out. Black Knight was already down the hall by the time Holiday turned her rifle on her.

Holiday moved to follow after Black Knight but was quick to realize a more urgent matter, namely Carmen. So she instead ran over to her to help. Looking up Carmen spied Holiday with hand out and the gynoid took it, standing up shakily, still uneasy from her roughhousing with Black Knight.

"Are you okay?"

Carmen nodded, "Yeah, nothing serious." she replied, "… she was more powerful than I realized."

"Yeah. And that's why she needs to be stopped. Can you keep going?"

Carmen nodded once more and after getting a stable footing she followed Holiday out of the room.

But just as they were leaving…

"Thank you… for helping me." came a soft reply from the gynoid.

Holiday turned back to her, noting the soften features upon her face and replied, "No problem." with a bright smile, "I told you I just want to help you."

"Yeah... I see." came Carmen, eyes held low in deep thought.

The moment was brief, but meaningful as the two got back to the business at hand. Meanwhile Black Knight raced down the hallway, clutching tight her bag of vials, doing her level best to keep any more from spilling out. As she reached the main hallway she found scattered remains of the Black Pawns, with the final android skewered into the ground by Six.

"Useless." she muttered, garnering the attention of the ninja and the others.

"Going somewhere?" he said, glaring at her through tinted glasses.

"I don't have time to waste fighting you." she growled, pulling back her sleeve to reveal a small wrist mounted bracelet with buttons on it, "Guess it's time to use that insurance policy of mine."

Upon pressing the button a signal was sent to the Quadruped, which was currently in battle with Rex. Both combatants were haggard. Chunks of he Quadrupeds armor had been bashed and shredded, revealing the servos and circuitry beneath while Rex was battered and bruised. Still he looked ready to continue the fight, but perking up the Quadruped reacted to the coming signal and immediately swiveled its cannons up toward the ceiling.

With a roar it unleashed its payload, firing twin cannon blast upward that detonated across the ceiling, which collapsed in short order, burying it.

A "Take Cover!" could be heard as Six warned of the imminent collapse, a call that prompted all around to scatter lest they be crushed.

The collapsing roof splintered down the hallway, just as the duo of Holiday and Carmen came racing down it. The rumbling threw Holiday off balance and she tripped mid-run.

"Look out!" cried Carmen, yanking at Holiday's collar just as the roof collapsed on them both.

The ceiling soon sported a rather large hole in it, a hole that Black Knight promptly used to make her exit.

"Thanks for everything. I suppose I should leave you all a parting gift. A permanent parting." she said, once more pressing a button on her bracelet.

At that command the Quadruped stirred once more beneath the fallen roof, still operational and well as letting loose an ominous glowing from deep in its chest.

Then a jet pack of sorts appeared on Black Knight's back that released an ionic field that propelled her up and out of the facility.

The debris was slow to clear as the group recovered, more of less unharmed by the collapse. Still Six called out to everyone in concern.

"Everyone okay?"

A moaning Bobo tried to stand and felt himself cringe, "My knee… it's…" he murmured, feeling a piercing pain run though it, "My knee… it's…" he groaned, garnering a look of concern even from JungleCat, "… I think I… skinned it a little." she said, blowing at the scraped knee, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…"

JungleCat growled, angry at Bobo for the theatrics, as well as himself for getting so worked up over it.

Sounds of coughing caught their attention as a large metal gauntlet pushed aside the fallen panels of he roof. It was Rex, who while looking ragged, was unharmed.

"Gotta give Black Knight credit. She sure can bring the house down." he chuckled, coughing up more dust, "Wait… where's Holiday?" he said, realizing he had heard her cry out as the roof came down.

"I'm… I'm okay." they heard, a muffled reply coming from beneath some rubble.

Rex was quick to leap over and scrounge at the wreckage, quickly uncovering Holiday, who was currently underneath Carmen. The gynoid held her arms on either side of Holiday, having used her back to try and hold back the falling debris.

"Thank you." came Holiday, smiling up at Carmen.

"Just… returning the favor." replied Carmen.

The others soon joined as Rex and Sixx helped up Carmen and Holiday respectively.

"Where's Black Knight!?" Holiday asked.

A grim shake of the head punctuated his coming answer, "She got away."

That brought Holiday's expression low. And it lowered even further when a slight rumbling signified the Quadruped rising up once more.

"Stubborn thing! Doesn't know when to call it quits!" barked Rex, calling forth his nanites in order to start the battle anew.

However he noticed something different about the Quadruped, deep in its gullet something was glowing brightly.

"Oh no." came Carmen, face caught in shock, "The core! It's overloading!"

"What!?" came a bewildered Rex.

Carmen was quick to explain, "The Quadruped has a core not unlike mine, though not nearly as advanced. Still if that core goes it could take a good portion of this place with it!"

"Do you know when!?"

"At the rate it's cycling, less than two minutes!"

"Then I gotta take it down before then!" he barked, and with the dreaded deadline set Rex leapt at the Quadruped with blade at the ready.

But even though the mech was melting down it still had a lot of fight in it, swiping at Rex in a crazed frenzy. Rex's blade hacked at it's side, severing one of its machine guns, but the mech spun on its heel, hip checking the boy away. He moaned as he recovered, looking up to see a shadow looming above. Diving away a moment later Rex avoided a powerful tackle as the mech slammed into the wall, causing more of the ceiling to come down as it shook the hallway.

Rex's Slam Cannon came out next, scooping up the fallen debris and launching it at the Quadruped to pummel it. However the beast retaliated with gunfire of its own, firing off a cannon shot that decimated his Slam Cannon.

An attempt to subdue the mech with his Blaster Caster was also met with less than desirable results. Even though Rex managed to wrangle the mech around the collar and send several thousand volts of energy rippling through it the Quadruped fought through the shocks to grab hold of the metallic tendril. With a jerking motion Rex was whipped into the nearby wall, slamming hard against it, shattering the dynamo on his back as the rest of the build fell apart.

"Argh! There's no way I'll beat this thing in time!" barked Rex, pulling himself back to his feet, "I can't even shut the stupid thing down because of that barrier."

"You might not be able to shut it off, but I might." came Carmen, running alongside Rex.

"How so?"

"My USB interface." she replied, "There's a port just on the back of the "neck" of the Quadruped for emergency computer calibrations. If I can interface with it I can shut it off… I think." she said, looking as the creature rose to its feet once more, "But I don't think I'll make it too its neck on my own."

"Then hang on tight." came Rex, grabbing Carmen up before his feet exploded into large metal boots, though he felt a slightly lag as Carmen wrapped her arm around his neck, "Wow, you're heavier than I thought."

"I'm not that heavy! I'm barely even half a ton!" she cried out.

With a mighty grunt Rex leapt up, sailing through the air toward the Quadruped. The beast swiped out once more, but just as the claw came Rex's way he pulled back his Punk Busters, so that the attack swung just under him. The two kept going, landing on the mech's head and rolling onto its back in a haphazard manner.

The mech thrashed about wildly as the two hung one for all they were worth; Rex using his Smack Hands to wrap around the mech's neck to try and control it.

Carmen pulled herself to a section of the mech, just behind the rotating turret "head" of the beast and pulled at a panel. Pulling free the metal cover revealed a drive port, just the right size for Carmen, who brought her finger to the port, revealing her USB interface.

"Do you really think this is going to work?" came a struggling Rex.

Carmen shrugged, "Almost definitely not." she replied, but placed her finger into the port anyway, "But it's not like we have much of a choice." she said, as her internal systems went to work.

The glowing core of the Quadruped sparked out wildly, the energies within mere moments from exploding out. A great cry from the mech issued forth, but before the core could meltdown a bright light shined in the eyes of Carmen as she pushed through the mech's firewall and communicated directly with is control drive.

The coming roar shook the foundations of the research facility, causing all around to step back in abject terror. But fortunately no explosion came, for just moments before detonation the beast's movements began to falter and it slowly dipped down.

"Good boy… good boy, relax. It's okay, let's just shut off that overloading sequence shall we?" came Carmen, as the mech's struggles began to wane.

As did the bright light of its core.

"Is is done?" Rex asked.

He got a nod from Carmen, "Yep. Just had to give it some new commands to follow. Mine."

With body powering down the mech crouched down and Rex slowly released his grip around its neck, with Carmen disengaging herself from its interface panel.

"Fortunately this is only the prototype so its defense software is easily navigable." replied Carmen, as she and Rex hopped down from its neck, "I was able to bring it completely under control before the core when critical. Isn't that right boy?" she said, bringing hand to the mech.

In response it knelt down toward her as she brushed her finger tips along its metallic snout.

"So what, now it's yours?" Rex ask.

"More or less. It'll listen to my commands anyway." she replied.

"Can we go home now?" asked Bobo, he and the others slowly converging on Rex, Carmen, and the Quadruped.

---

"So how did you like your first day as an official Providence Special Agent?" asked Holiday after the group returned to Providence base, meeting in the Tower.

"Well, after being shot at and knocked around like a rag doll for most of it I can't say it was one of my better days." came Carmen, "But then again I can't say it was boring."

"Or as I like to call it, a Tuesday." came Rex, "Welcome to our world."

"Yay…" she muttered.

"So Black Knight escaped, again." they heard the voice of White Knight say upon a view screen.

"Hey, kinda preoccupied with stopping the mech." came Rex, "She did try to blow us up after all."

"Which Carmen managed to stop. If she hadn't been with us things could have been far worse." replied Holiday, sending White a not so subtle message.

"Alright, alright. She's proved that she can be an asset to Providence." came Knight, giving an exasperated sigh, "As long as she does that she has a place here."

"Well, I guess that works for me Albino Buddy." came Carmen, "Also… I suppose you were right about Black Knight. Without my defensive systems… I didn't stand a chance against her."

"Hopefully in time that can change and we can unlock all your abilities." replied Holiday, smiling as Carmen nodded in agreement, "As well as learn more about you."

"I suppose there's nothing wrong with that." Carmen replied, "And you guys are pretty interesting yourselves."

"Then welcome to the team." came a smirking Rex, bringing up a gloved hand.

Carmen took hold of it with a smirk of her own, clasping it tightly. The others felt a similar good vibe from the arrangement, save for White Knight who moaned out a "Great, there's two of them now." before his picture went dark.

"He'll come around eventually." replied Holiday.

"Maybe, though the Quadruped was easier to convince." replied Carmen.

"You sure it was a good idea to leave it at the research lab?" asked JungleCat, "What if Black Knight returns and gains control of it?"

"Don't worry." relied Carmen, "I completely erased her order protocols from the Quadruped and replaced them with my own. So without directly interfacing with it there's no way she can gain back control." she said with a confident nod, "Besides, now with the Quadruped acting as guard dog Caesar and the other scientists won't have to worry about any more attacks."

Caesar had been generally intrigued by the stationing of the Quadruped at the facility, considering its A.I. programming. And to be honest he always liked dogs so it was a win-win for him.

"Works for me." came Rex, "At least as long as I don't have to fight that thing anymore."

"Thank you Carmen, you really pulled through today." replied Holiday.

"Thanks." she replied, a smile flitting across her face, "I don't know where I'm going to go from her, but I'm glad I have a place to start."

"Then why don't we start with a tour of the base." came Rex, "Gonna have to familiarize yourself with everything."

"And you'll volunteer?"

"Baby, I know every square inch of this place." came Rex, motioning her over to the exit.

After leaving he brought her over to a nearby door, "For instance I know that this is a weapons storage closet." he said, placing a hand upon a panel and opening the door to reveal…

A very irate simian who had been trying to do his "business" in peace.

"Ocupado!" barked Bobo, slamming the door back closed.

A sheepish chuckle flowed from Rex's lips as he caught the knowing look from Carmen, "They're always changing things around in this base." he replied lamely.

"Thanks Rex. Now I know what door not to open up randomly." she chuckled, shaking her head.

"That's why it's good to have a tour." he said, and continued on, trying to save face as Carmen continued to chuckle behind him.

"Things are going to get… interesting, aren't they?" asked Six as Rex and Carmen disappeared down the hallway.

"No doubt about that Six." replied Holiday, "And I can't wait."

---

Carmen Wright isn't my creation but that of WickedCurlyFeather on Deviantart art. You can find the specific picture this story is based on by typing in "Carmen Wright."

I had always planned on making a Generator Rex story but couldn't really find anything that made it worthwhile, then when I saw this idea I couldn't help but use it. But remember this is not my creation and I'm not laying any claim to it. I'm just using it to develop an original storyline.

Let me know how how the flow of the story feels. I've already got the basic format down but I'm always up to change things and feedback is important. But most importantly enjoy.