Thousands of feet in the air, Rex found himself within the confines of a Providence standard Jump Jet flying over a city that was seaming with both activity and a newfound sort of peace. It had only been a few months since the miraculous "Cure Event" had taken place, but humanity was already making a grand effort to recover from the devastating epidemic that had plagued society over the previous six years.
And even though the existence of EVO kind, sans Rex, was made nonexistent as far as Providence was aware, the organization still maintained its relevancy in a post EVO infected world by shifting away from its military stance and transitioning into a more research and humanitarian focused organization. From agents and soldiers to scientists and volunteers, Providence became known for providing assistance to areas that were heavily impacted during the Event and for continuing the research on the now dormant Nanites that resided within the bodies of every living organism.
Understandably, this left Doctor Holiday with a significant amount of work to do as she was already Providence's head scientist before she was assigned to oversee the operations of an entire division the size of an organization. But despite the commendations and stature of what seemed to be a grand promotion, she would frequently be relocated around the world wherever world leaders requested her to be—without any say in the matter, or time to argue otherwise. Fortunately she held no qualms over dutifully serving the many recovering countries of the world, but it still pained her that she had little opportunity to check on who she still considered to be her most important patient: Rex.
She took up a mothering role in his life not long after she first met him years ago, and took great pride in her position as she was one of the few people in Providence—no, the entire world that actually treated him as another human being rather than some sort of tool or 'living weapon'. Even thinking about referring to him as such brought her a great feeling of disgust. And though it often went unspoken, Rex truly did appreciate what Holiday had become to him; so much so that after weeks of not having seen her, he hacked into Providence's database in order find her location and 'commandeered' an available Jump Jet to go and visit her, as a Jump Jet was still the only mode of transportation that was faster than he was with his machines.
He chose to locate himself close to the rear, sitting on the floor with his back firmly planted against the exit hatch while he bounced a cheaply made rubber ball against the wall opposite to him. But for what his accommodations lacked in both leisure and safety was more than made up for by an unparalleled freedom that could not have been provided if he were situated anywhere else, as even though it was the floor that was acting as his seat, he was able to travel without any sort of restraints save for his own self-discipline, which was more than enough for him.
Of course there was also the fact that he wasn't back there alone, as accompanying him within that section of the Jump Jet was an animal—a simian more specifically—who was busy polishing two crimson-coated handguns in a very tender manner. But more interesting than his ability to perform maintenance was the presence of his one remaining eye, which was currently tracking the ball with a keen sense of curiosity as it bounced around.
"You seem a bit antsy there, Chief. Maybe we ought to've checked you for ticks before we left." Sneered the mono-eyed Chimpanzee with the unusual affinity to speak—using words that were just as often profane as they were credulously provocative. In turn, the Providence agent ceased the bouncing and held the ball in his hand after it returned to him once more, tossing a menacing glance towards his simian sidekick with the ball aimed that direction.
The Chimp ducked down to the floor and clutched onto his fez in anticipation of the ball flying his direction. But when the projectile never reached him, he released the grip on his hat and looked back at his partner questioningly, who let out a light chuckle as he continued to toss the ball elsewhere.
"What? Ya mean you ain't gonna pelt me with that thing? I know you can aim that at me without any difficulty." He said while gesturing to his good eye with one of his fingers.
"It isn't past me, but it's more fun messing with you, Bobo. And besides, it would take too much effort to get the ball back from here." Rex taunted while spinning the ball using a finger.
"But ain't you got like five machines that can do that for ya?"
"I WOULD THINK NOT." A voice from the intercom system interjected with a deafening blare, prompting for the two stowaways to hastily cover their ears and slouch in discomfort.
"Hey Kenwyn, ya mind cranking down the audio!? Don't wanna be half blind AND deaf!" Bobo screeched. Kenwyn promptly lowered the audio levels, and after a second of loud static the noise was reduced to more appropriate levels.
"Sorry about that, guys." she apologized, "Half of our equipment is falling apart at the seams and telling what works and what doesn't gets harder by the day."
"Um, have you forgotten that I can talk to machines and figure any issues that they have in less than a second?" Rex questioned as he placed his hand against the Jet's wall.
"You better not be messing with the Jet back there, hero." Kenwyn commanded, causing Rex to reel back his hand before his Nanites had the chance to travel through the vehicle. "Not sure if you need to be reminded this, but the only reason I'm going behind Providence's back is because we all want to see Doctor Holiday and you don't know how to fly a Jump Jet, which I would like to pilot without any disturbances."
"Who knows, maybe it's the kid's amnesia is acting up again." Bobo taunted, skewing the intentions of Kenwyn's comment.
"Not how my amnesia works. Retrograde, not anterograde, learn your differences." Rex defensively retorted. "And okay, I get that I have a reputation for breaking things, but do you guys really not trust me enough to use my Nanites on the Jet?"
"Well, we don't." Another feminine voice interrupted.
"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Babe." Rex uttered sarcastically.
"But for real, the second your Nanites start running through the Jet Providence will notice an interference and begin tracking us down." She explained. "Personally, I'd like to see them try and catch us. It'd make for a fun chase, don't you guys think?" Rex couldn't help but smirk at the thought of being chased down by Providence, especially considering he had several accomplices this time around to help him take the blame should he be caught.
"Don't give them any ideas, Circe!" Kenwyn pleaded as she tried to cut off the communication channel to no avail.
"It's too late for that, Kenny. We already stole two of these Jump Jets and I want to see how many offenses we can rack up before Providence finally decides to kick us out." The second pilot teased from the second Jet trailing very closely behind. Traveling with him were six other passengers comprising of the other two members of the Hong Kong gang, Beverly, Noah, Annie, and Claire, with the latter half of the group having chosen to ride in Skwydd's Jet rather than Kenwyn's simply out of fear of flying on the same jet as Rex after previous experiences.
"While I'd love to see them kick you out, Walter, I wouldn't want to do anything at the cost of me losing my position as well. And please, don't call me 'Kenny'." She sighed knowing well that she'd be ignored, which Tuck made a point of mentioning when he took the mic.
"Sorry Kenwyn, but I think we'll see Skwydd turn into some sort of tentacle monster before calling you by your actual name."
"I personally think it's kind of cute," Cricket chirped. "It's sort of like a pet name between the two of you."
"Cute." Kenwyn groaned while Skwydd shifted awkwardly at the mention. "Hey Beverly, you mind checking how close we are to your sister?" Kenwyn queried.
"Huh?" She groggily replied as she jerked her head up. "Oh yeah, yeah I can do that for you, just give me a second to find…that…"
"You feeling alright, Beverly? You sound a bit exhausted, aren't you excited to see your sister?" Rex politely questioned.
"Of course I want to see my sister, I'm just a bit tired is all. Recently I've been spending so much time in the lab assisting your brother that I might've missed a night's sleep. Or two. Or five." She droned on while slumping further down into her seat, which for all intents and purposes should not have been at the front of the Jet as the co-pilot.
"Someone should really beat some sense into you, Caesar." Rex muttered beneath his breath with his nose pinched in his hand. "Listen, if working for my brother is the only thing keeping your parents from pulling you out of Providence, why not just work with your sister?"
"Because Rebecca would prefer it if I just didn't work for Providence at all; says that it's bad enough with all the work she's doing and that the last thing she'd want is for me to dragged all over the place, too. But at this point, I'm really starting to question if that's any worse than installing Nanite detection protocols onto Jump Jets in the middle of the night."
"Of course it was Caesar's idea. Maybe I'm the one who needs to beat him." Rex thought to himself, wondering why it was that his brother's activities always seemed to be to his own disbenefit. "Don't lose any sleep over it," he absentmindedly stated, "Just go take a nap or something so that Doc isn't too suspicious when we arrive."
"Which should be in about—" Beverly froze as her eyes darted all over the monitor before her. "Hold on, something's wrong with the display."
"Wrong how?" Tuck questioned.
"I-It's almost like something's interfering with it."
"Hey, don't worry about it too much, Beverly. Faulty equipment, remember?" Kenwyn tried reconciling.
"No, this is definitely different. It being faulty is one thing, but the numbers are misaligned, and scrambling themselves in a certain pattern that definitely indicates some sort of intent." It was often forgotten that Beverly too came from a family of geniuses. And even though her intellect wasn't of the same caliber as her sister or anyone on the Nanite development team such as the likes of Caesar, her observation skills were far superior to that of a regular person and enough to keep her sane when acting as Caesar's dedicated lab assistant. "Whenever Caesar reprogrammed the ships it acted exactly like this, except the systems didn't suddenly start acting unresponsive!"
Circe checked her monitor within the first Jet, and sure enough their equipment was reacting in the exact same fashion. And without any warning, the sirens suddenly began blaring and the warning lights were flashing with an unnerving red glow.
"That's not good. Rex, you think you can figure out what's causing everything to go on the fritz?" Circe coolly inquired. Rex deliberated on all of the possibilities before finally deciding to take action.
"Can't tell, so I guess we're just gonna have to explain this all to Providence once they catch up." He declared as he placed his hand back on the Jet and commanded for the Nanites to travel through the system. Glowing blue strains extended from his fingertips and traveled all throughout the vehicle, relaying all of the information to Rex as it surged back to its body. "Something is definitely interfering with the system. Everything is working, but it's like all of the systems have a 'cold', particularly the anti-defense system for some reason…"
Beverly considered all of the possible explanations to the phenomena, and after the logic of her conclusion surpassed what she wanted to believe was mere paranoia, her eyes widened and she slammed her palm against the intercom system.
"Kenwyn, we have to change our route RIGHT NOW! We're being ATTA—" But before she could complete her statement, the first Jet violently erupted in half after a laser pierced the hull of the ship, followed by a fiery explosion immediately after.
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
I'm writing again, and this time with a coherent story in mind so that I won't have to take a several month hiatus in order to continue the story!
So yeah, it was a mixture of a writing block and a creative pitfall that prevented me from getting past the third chapter, which is ultimately why I chose to abandon the previous series rather than revise it. This story began pretty similarly as you can already tell, but it still works better for me to establish the rest of the story.
That being said I plan on regularly updating the story bi-weekly at the minimum, but I would recommend sending me reviews and what not so that I won't forget to update the chapters; but by no means do I plan on abandoning the series and those of us that still remain in this fanbase, so sorry for the delay, and I hope you enjoy the remainder of the chapters!
P.S: Most of this was written in a 5 hour binge while I was experiencing a major headache. If anything doesn't make sense, please let me know and I'll correct it.