Wind rushed against his face as he spread his arms, freefalling to earth at a rather leisurely pace, given the circumstances. The corners of his bright orange jacket caught the wind, flapping wildly against the streamlined path of the air as it cut around the Latino's slender build.
"Come on, Rex, head in the game." his mentor's voice crackled in his ear, the sound muted by the low hum of the wind.
"Relax, Six, I've got this." Rex grinned, and ostentatious metal blossomed from his back, matching his jacket perfectly. Plane-like wings stretched on either side of his with an impressive span, with twin propellers on either end.
His descent slowed, and the lights of the city twinkled in the distance. There had been an EVO sighting just on its outskirts, in the general vicinity of where Rex touched down. The wings folded in on themselves like demented origami, before seeming to fade from existence into his back once more. Equally orange goggles were pulled from his eyes, resting atop his spiked raven hair.
Newly exposed eyes swept the landscape with a chocolate gaze, but saw nothing except cracked dirt and a few scraggly trees that were in rather sad shape.
"I'm not seeing anything out here. Are we sure these are the right coordinates?" he asked, the microphone ingrained into the earpiece sure to have picked up the question.
"Were ya expecting it to be wrapped up for you and waiting on a silver platter? Sorry, chief, that's just now how it works in our line of business." came the response from a characteristically sarcastic sidekick, as Rex liked to think of the Chimp EVO.
"It's not like there are that many EVOS left out there. I pretty sure it would be hard to lose one of them." the teen retorted. "You would think after six months, we would have gotten what was left."
"Yet here we are."
"No, here I am. You're still on the ship watching from a screen, while I'm doing all the dirty work." came his reply. He was about to say something else, but a flash of movement out the corner of his eye caught his attention.
"Wait, I think I saw something." he said, lowering his voice.
His black boots stepped almost soundlessly across the mostly even terrain, allowing him to move quickly. His previous joking demeanor was gone, replaced with an only recently acquired focus. He had been rather quick to learn that the remaining EVOS were only there because there was something different about them. They were stronger, faster and more powerful, making them all the more deadly, and he had to be on alert.
Another snatch of motion drew his gaze to a cluster of boulders piled disjointedly to his left. He moved carefully towards them, scanning for anything that might try to jump out and, oh kill him or something. He saw nothing but thick shadows from beneath the rapidly setting sun. He'd better find that EVO soon, or he'd be stuck out there again the next day, going through this mess all over again.
Something seemed to twitch in the shadows, but before he could figure out what is was, it was leaping at his face.
He ducked just in time, narrowly avoiding being hit, and he whipped around to face the EVO.
A forked tongue flicked from its mouth, saliva coating dozens of tiny barbs that were sure to hold a nasty sting. It stood on two legs, each foot having three toes with a wickedly sharp, curved talons protruding from their ends, smaller versions of them serving as arm. The creature's eyes glared at him with a sinister glow of a toxic yellow, pupils narrow slits. Spikes flared out in every direction, it seemed, already making it a difficult task to get near enough to it to see of it could be cured, though Rex doubted it. Most of the remaining EVOS were incurable.
To top it all off, the thing's tail whipped back and forth, and, upon closer inspection, was flinging translucent goo off of a demonic spindle that sizzled when it touched the ground.
"Found it." Rex muttered.
His body jerked reflexively to avoid the stinger, thinking it would be a bad idea to let the goo even touch him, much less get into his bloodstream. He could only imagine what it would do inside of him, when it made dry, sun baked dirt hiss like acid.
His hands expanded into enormous metal fists to block the attacks, his feet sliding back a good several inches as it struck. He shoved the creature, and the metal fists were replaced by an equally massive sword. He swung at the EVO several times, succeeding only in shaving off a few of the spikes. They went on for a few minutes, before Rex finally got the upper hand by slicing the slinger from its tail. It squealed in pain, and the wound gushed blood and venom, but he only seemed to enrage it more.
It launched itself at him, causing the Latino to stumble back several feet and teeter unsteadily. The EVO seized the opportunity to pounce, and knocked Rex to the ground, barbed tongue flicking dangerously close to his face.
It hissed loudly, exposing multiple rows of tiny, razor sharp teeth that gleamed with venom. Its head reared back, seconds from biting, and a low whistle sounded in Rex's ear.
He thought he was simply hallucinating, until something hit the side of the creature's head and crackled with electricity. It ripped away from Rex, also unpinning him, as it shook its head back and tried to dislodge whatever was electrocuting it. Two more hit its side, and the sharp smell of burning flesh filled the air as the EVO finally collapsed.
Rex spun around, expecting to see Bobo or Six, but no one was there.
"Hello?" he called, but was met with no answer.
He turned back to the subdued EVO, carefully placing his hand between the vicious spiked to attempt a cure. He felt his nanites tingling, but there was no change in the creature.
"No go, guys, cage 'em for Doc to check out." Rex said, but there was no response. He repeated the command, pulling the earpiece from its place after the second round of silence.
"Figures." he muttered, slipping it into his pocket. Well, they were supposed to rendezvous if Rex hadn't caught the thing within an hour, so they should be coming around pretty soon anyways.
In the meantime, he knelt beside the EVO, and examined whatever had shocked it. It charge seemed to have died off, only lasting for a few seconds, so he grasped the device and pulled it from the thick, lizard-like hide of the creature to more closely examine it.
It seemed to be some kind of powerful taser attached to a thin rod, which, upon closer inspection, was fletched.
"Taser arrow?" he said aloud, fingering the rough, artificial feathers. Pulling the other two from its side, he saw they were the same. They weren't Providence tech, either, so whoever shot it was both well trained with either a regular bow or a crossbow, though he figured the first one because of its length, and stealth, because Rex didn't hear anyone. Then again, he had been pretty focused on not getting his head bitten off or poison hit him to be listening for someone.
A few minutes later, Six and Bobo dropped out of the hover plane. It was an odd sight, a mutated monkey wearing a shirt bordering grotesque, an eye patch, and a drooping fez, while the man walking next to him exuded an aura of intimidation and subtle power.
"Are you kidding me? We thought you were dead or something, after the speakers squeaked, then static. You didn't even save anything for us!" she chimp complained, eyeing the motionless EVO.
"Sorry. The stupid earpiece must have shorted out, or something." Rex shrugged, handing the taser arrows to Six. "Do these look familiar to you? That thing was about to take my head off, when those flew out of nowhere and electrocuted it."
His green-clad mentor took a moment to examine them himself, before answering, "I've seen similar devices, but this particular one has been modified to only hold enough power for a short burst. Then, the voltage burns out the power."
"So, you were still getting it handed to you, but someone else got here before we did." Bobo summed up.
"No, I was handling it! Whoever it was just made my job a little easier." Rex replied, indignant.
"Yeah, just keep telling yourself that." he teased.
"Come on. We need to get this back to Providence, preferably before we are the source of another national event." Six said, calling in a cargo ship to transport the unconscious EVO.
As Rex shoved the creature into the cage, he couldn't help but wonder, who had helped him and pretty much saved his life. Or, more importantly, why?