I do not own Generator Rex, or any of the characters that have already or will debut in the series.

Note: I'm picking this up after Van Kleiss' disappearance in the Amazon (can't remember the episode name, and I really don't want to go on to look it up. I vowed never to go there again) and goes on from there. I'm kind of ignoring what goes on after then, especially if it contradicts what I wrote. Please bear with me.

Forgive the grammar on "the big one". His home region, which will be revealed in the next chapter, will explain a lot.

Generator Rex

Whole New Ballgame

"This is boring. When am I gonna get to kick more Evo butt?"

Rex was sitting in one of the transport's seats, feet propped up against the seat in front of him. His boredom stemmed not just from the trip, the purpose of which he knew nothing about, but the fact that, since Van Kleiss had disappeared in the Amazon nearly two weeks ago, things had been quiet. Without their mad patron, the more malevolent Evos had gone underground, and less people had undergone nanite activations, leaving Rex with nothing to do. His handler, Six, didn't move from his spot further up the hold, but still managed to be heard despite not raising his voice any more than usual.

"Two days ago, Greenville, Ohio, came back on the map. Considering . . . earlier events, we were assigned to investigate and remove any innocents that might still be stuck there."

"Man, no action? This sucks."

"What, you wanna have the Pack and Van Kleiss tryin' ta take over the world again? Trust me kid, this is sooo much better than playing catch-up with some group a' crazies. It's like Easy Street."

Rex half-looked over at his sidekick, the wise-cracking, gun-toting monkey Bobo. Inside, he knew Bobo was right; a rescue mission was better than fighting Van Kleiss' super-evolved minions, even if it was less exciting. Still, this wasn't going to be a walk in the park by any means; Greenville had been the personal toy chest of Breach, an insane ex-Pack member that liked keeping dangerous things within the town. Hopefully most of them would have cleared out by now, but there was at least one that would probably still be there, and she was definitely not friendly. He'd mentioned all this in his debriefing after his escape from Greenville, but felt the need to remind Six, who would undoubtedly remind the rest of the team in turn.

"We're almost there. Strap in and prepare for landing."

Rex reluctantly strapped in (an embarrassing incident early in his career with Providence had taught him to always do that) and prepared to go back into the belly of the beast. Breach's little nightmare realm had terrified him deep down, something that he had to hide right now. Pushing down the voice in his head that screamed for him to get out while he still could, Rex stepped out of the transport and onto the main street of Greenville.

The reaction to the Providence troops was immediate. Two large Evos that looked like massive scaly rabbits with fangs came tearing around a corner, heading straight for Rex. He activated his Evo powers, generating massive armored fists that he swung, one-two, until the monsters fell. Once he was sure they were down, he laid his hands on them, drawing their nanites out, an act his Providence superiors had called "curing" them. The monsters turned out to be a pair of white rabbits, which bounded off as soon as he was done with them. That had been easy, but these had been simple animals. If he found something with a human intelligence that was still trying to please Breach . . . well, hopefully he wouldn't find any of those.

After half an hour, he had covered most of the town. Fortunately there were no more Evos, although there were several frightened people hiding in buildings. Only one place remained to search. He'd forgotten the name attached to the school, but it was where his adventure in Breach's private nightmare had begun and ended. If the Curator was still in Greenville, she would be there. Walking up to the doors, he felt more than heard Providence agents forming up behind him. Drawing a deep breath, he pushed open the doors and walked in.

He hadn't gotten more than a few steps into the building when the windows started breaking. The troops outside, after hearing his reports of how vicious the Curator was, had prepared gas canisters that would, hopefully, weaken and disorient her. Rex activated a new machine he'd learned to make, an oxygen filter that would keep the gas out of his system. No need to fight her on her terms again; he hated to admit it, but she'd almost beaten him during their fight, and he didn't want to risk that again. Shortly after the gas bombs started going off, Providence agents armed with shock guns started coming in through the windows, ready to back Rex up if necessary.

The Curator was sitting in the same room she'd been in when Rex had escaped from Greenville two weeks ago, rocking back and forth from the gas attack. Rex snuck up on her and laid a hand on her without a single attack launched against him. She didn't even try to resist him curing her, leaving an unconscious little girl sitting on the ground. With her bulk removed, Rex saw another body on the ground, one with an extra set of arms and black hair. Breach, who was apparently not dead like they'd thought, was barely breathing and didn't respond when he nudged her in the ribs with his foot.

"The package is present. Move in to secure. Son, get out of here before she wakes up."

"Wait, what? I don't think she's gonna wake up anyti-"

"Leave, or we will take you down, abilities or not. We have our orders."

Rex was slowly pushed out of the room, too stunned to fight it. As he left, he saw a pair of operatives pushing in a stretcher with an inordinate amount of restraints attached. He had to talk to Six. Six would know what this was about. Right?

"What is this about, White? We weren't told about any sort of capture mission being run."

"No, you weren't. Judging from Rex's testimony, the Curator could communicate with Breach telepathically, and we didn't know if that extended to other beings stored in that dimension. If Rex had known, she might have been able to find out and use that information against us."

Six pinched the bridge of his nose. As usual, White had managed to answer his question without actually telling him anything. A useful ability for a bureaucrat or spy, but not useful when communicating with a field agent. Dr Holiday, their resident geneticist, asked from a different angle.

"But why where you prepared to capture Breach in the first place? All our evidence suggested what little information she had was covered by layers of insanity, and she was suspected to be dead anyway."

"It's simple. We hope to convert Breach to our side by whatever means necessary. With an Evo of that power, especially if we can find a way to induce curing abilities in her, we might be able to turn the tides against the Evo threat."

"You're gonna brainwash her!"

"Not now, Rex-"

"Yes, now! You can't just mess with someone's head like that! It's wrong!"

"Rex has a point. Besides, what if we can't convince her to side with us? What happens when if she goes berserk when we try?"

"We eliminate her, again by whatever means necessary. You may not realize this, but this is a war, and we must win at all costs-"

"So it's join or die? Is this what you did to me when my nanites activated? This isn't right and you know it!"

"Listen to me. Breach is dangerous, more so than any other Evo we've ever encountered. She has proven she can remove whole cities with a wave of her hand, and she's insane enough to do it on a whim. If we can't have her, no one can. Understood?"

"Yeah, I understand, and I'm washing my hands of this whole mess. I don't want anything more to do with this."

With that, Rex turned around and walked out on White and Six. Holiday ran after him, hoping to talk him down.

"Rex-"

"No. I don't want to kill her. In the end, am I just as expendable? Is there some secret plan to kill me if I go rogue?"

"Listen to me. You know more than anyone that I don't like this either, but she's dangerous. Just look at what she did to you. We all know you still have nightmares about your time in Greenville-"

"I'm leaving. No calls."

Rex reached the door he'd been heading to, opening it with a wave of his hand. He generated the hoverbike he used whenever he wanted to get away and rode. He didn't know where he'd go yet. Maybe he'd find Noah. Noah was the closest thing to an unbiased party in this whole mess, and right now he just needed to talk to someone, to get this whole knot of feelings off his chest. He'd rather talk to Circe, but he hadn't heard anything about her after Van Kleiss had shown up in America. Noah would have to do. Behind him, Holiday watched him ride away. She hoped he wouldn't do something stupid, because she had no doubt White would remove Rex if he had to. Her shoulders slumped, and she shut the door as she went back into the temporary base Providence had set up to deal with Breach. Time to go to work.

"-and I don't know if I can do it anymore, if we're just going to screw around with people's heads and lives like that. She's not even evil, if you want to get strict about it, but just messed up in the head. Am I right?"

Noah nodded, trying to process everything Rex had said; he'd kind of let it all out at once, and it was hard to absorb that quickly. It took him a moment, so absorbed in trying to figure out the entire situation that he was, to realize that Rex was expecting an answer.

"I don't know. I mean, Van Kleiss was only interested in the really vicious and nasty Evos for the Pack. I know you say Circe was different, but he still pegged her for joining, and she went with him. But Breach . . . I don't think I can side with you on this. Honestly, do you really want to risk another Greenville happening?"

"That's not the point! I'm worried about what Providence is turning into. I mean, what happens if I decide to go rogue over this? Will they send a death-squad after me if I do? What if they go after you for being my friend? Would you be as okay with that as you are with them doing that to Breach?"

"I . . . I don't know. I hope it wouldn't come to that, but-AAAGGGHHH!"

Rex turned to see a faded hand and arm sticking out of Noah's chest. In a heartbeat, he followed the arm through Noah's back and to the shoulder of a girl, faded out and translucent like a ghost. Her long brown hair framed a face devoid of anything but hate. A billowing cloak hung over an outfit that looked like it came off a high-school student from a Japanese cartoon. Lunging forward, he hit the girl in the shoulder. Amazingly, it actually connected, knocking the girl's hand out of Noah, who grabbed his chest with his hand. The girl looked shocked, like she hadn't expected Rex to actually touch her. She drew back her hand to strike him when a familiar voice came from behind Rex and Noah.

"Calm down Wraith. Rex won't hurt you unless you hurt his little friend again. Right, Rex?"

Rex turned to see Circe, just as beautiful as always, standing there with a slight smile on her face, arms crossed across her chest. His first thought was to rush over and hug her; his second was to hit her. His last thought, and the one he went with, was to ask her a few questions.

"How . . . what are you doing here? How did you find me?"

"You're not hard to find. All we had to do was wait for you to go off the reservation long enough and then find him." She pointed at Noah, who was still clutching his chest. "As for what we're doing here, well, we're here to keep you from going back to Providence for a while."

"Wha-why? Why keep me here?"

"That's a bit of a long story. Want to keep walking?"

Six and Bobo were the only security personal actually within the room in which Breach was being held; Holiday and the other scientist had agreed that too many people would severely strain their chances of a successful conversion, and really, Six was all they needed to contain Breach if she got out of hand. Not that there was much chance of that; restraints had been placed on either side of every joint she had, and a steady stream of sedatives and tranquilizers were being pumped into her bloodstream to keep her from waking up until they were done. All in all, it was going pretty quietly, until Six's earpiece signaled an incoming communication. He tapped it, and was immediately treated to the sounds of weapons fire.

"Six! Come in, Six!"

"This is Six. What's going on out there?"

"Evos! We don't know how many of them, but they're going berserk! We can't – AAAAA-"

The man's agonized scream was cut off as his earpiece malfunctioned in a small pop of white noise. Six flexed his arms, sliding his swords down out of his sleeves and deploying the full blades. Bobo and Holiday saw this; Bobo drew his guns, while Holiday's eyes widened noticeably.

"What's going on? Why are you-?"

"We're under attack. Get out of here, and take Breach with you. We'll hold them off while you get to a safehouse. Hurry!"

Holiday and the other scientist grabbed the stretcher-table Breach was restrained to and headed for the door. When it slid open, a barrage of spikes shot through, piercing the other scientist in several places. Before anyone could close the door, the source of those spikes, a green person (gender was impossible to tell) with a large lump on its back and a pair of tentacle-like arms came through. The creature that followed it was covered in black hair, though it was definitely female. Two extra pairs of arms sprouted from her back, and long silver hair framed a hauntingly near-human face, aside from the large number of eyes covering the top half. She opened her mouth, and Six felt something hit his shoulder, spinning him around and driving him to the ground. He looked and saw a large lump of grey spidersilk stuck to his suit, throwing off his balance with its mass. Before he could do anything about it, something hit the eastern door, knocking it flying and admitting two more Evos to the room.

The first was humongous, easily seven feet tall and covered in metal hide. His wings (obviously decorative, since nothing made of that much metal could fly without an engine) combined with general ugliness to associate him with a gargoyle. His companion was red and scaly, with horns and fangs adorning his head. Flames licked between his razor-sharp teeth, and a tail thrashed behind him, disturbing the charred lumps that had once been Providence agents in the hallway. The big one saw Six and grinned.

"Well, if it ain't the legendary Six. The girl says you's a tough one, but I think I could rip yunz a new one-"

"We're not faghting anyone. Now, if y'all would be so kand as to let the girl go, we can get all this behand us."

"And what makes you think we're just gonna hand Public Enemy #1 over to ya like that?"

Bobo turned his guns back over to the spider-girl, only to find her crouched behind Holiday with two pairs of arms pinning hers to her sides and her teeth next to the doctor's neck. Even from that distance, Six and Bobo could see clear venom dripping from the longest of her fangs. Holiday used that instant to be noble.

"Don't worry about me! Just keep Breach out of their hands!"

The spider Evo squeezed Holiday's wrist with one of her left hands hard enough to make her wince. Six slowly lowered his swords, gesturing for Bobo to drop his guns; the monkey did so reluctantly. The towering iron behemoth and his scaly counterpart crossed the room to Breach's stretcher; the scaly one looked furious as he looked over it. He quickly ripped wires out of the panel on the side, crossing them in varying combinations until the restraints all sprung open. He then pulled the IV of tranquilizers out of her arm and looked over at Holiday, saying "Stimulants" by way of explanation. Holiday nodded at one of the carts set up near the stretcher. The scaly Evo pulled out a syringe and held it out to Holiday, who injected Breach with it as best she could while remaining in the spider Evo's grasp. The big one hoisted Breach over his shoulder and gestured to the others, who formed up on him. The spider Evo turned so she was walking backwards, holding Holiday as a shield against any attacks from inside the room. Six couldn't do anything to stop them; Holiday was too valuable to risk these monsters hurting her. He held his hand up to stop Bobo, but that wasn't a problem. The two of them watched as Holiday and Breach were carried out off the lab, off to whatever monster had been interested in them.

"-so you see, I just didn't want anyone to get hurt. That's why I came for you."

Circe was staring up at the sky, like she was waiting for something. Rex was stunned. Circe seemed so different from when she was working for Van Kleiss. She was supremely confident in herself and her mysterious allies, and she was right to be. Rex decided to press her.

"So, what happened to you? I thought-"

"After our last meeting, I was . . . lost. I tried to disappear, but someone found me, someone who had more faith in me than Van Kleiss ever had. I was more than just a tool to her. I was a person. She wanted me to lead her elite, and once Van Kleiss was gone . . . we're the Pack now, not those overbearing groupies Van employed. We're like family to each other, all of us."

"But why Breach? She's a psycho. Not really the family type, wouldn't you agree?"

"Every family has that one kooky cousin, right? But there's still one more we'd like to join our family. Right, brother?"

Rex's eyes almost bugged out of his head. Circe was trying to recruit him? Was that the only reason she'd come personally? He'd thought she still felt something for him, but apparently that wasn't the case.

"So, that's it, huh? You want me on your team? You think I'm just gonna drop all the good things I've done for Providence just because I had a crush on you?"

"No! I-"

"Forget it, sister. You just bought yourself an enemy for trying to use our past like that."

"Rex, it's not like that! I wasn't trying to play you, honest!"

"Save it. He's made up his mind, hasn't he? Can I at least kill his friend now?"

"Bring it, you-"

Rex was interrupted by the sound of a Providence transport swooping down overhead. He looked up expectantly, waiting for Six or Bobo to jump down and take out Circe and her freaky bodyguard. Instead, the door opened to reveal Evos, two of them. The larger one held out a hand, which the ghostly girl grabbed so he could hoist her up. Circe lingered a moment; she looked heartbroken at Rex's choice. She rushed him and hugged him for a second, inhaling his scent and whispering a single word in his ear. Before he could react, she pushed off, grabbing the oversized Evo's hand to be pulled into the transport. The door closed, and the transport shot off to the south. Rex watched it go until a familiar beeping in his ear reminded him that he was still wearing his communicator. He pressed it and Six's voice came over immediately.

"Rex? Are you there?"

"Yeah. Circe's back, and she's got friends. We need to talk, right?"

"Come back immediately, and bring Noah with you. I assume he was with you when Circe met you?"

"Yeah. You think he can help?"

"Can't hurt. Hurry back."

Rex re-formed the hoverbike and held out a hand for Noah to pull himself on with; he did so very reluctantly. Almost before he could get a good grip Rex sped off, heading for the temporary base Providence had set up. Hopefully he could get some explanation for the questions now bouncing around his skull.

Breach was still loopy from all the drugs pumping through her system, randomly starting sentences that she rarely finished. Circe was sitting up front with Firedrake. She entered a frequency into the comm system. Before long a hologram of a hooded being appeared. The robe she was wearing was writhing, like something underneath was moving around. The voice that came from the speaker, in contrast with the image, was melodious, like a singer's voice.

"You have Breach secured?"

"Yes Ragnorra. We'll be home in a few hours."

"And the boy?"

"Just as you predicted. He refuses to leave Providence. He thought . . . he thought I was using his feelings against him, just as you said he would. And, like you ordered, I only gave him your name."

"Excellent. Providence will ponder this overmuch I think, giving us more time to enact our plans. You have done well, daughter. I will greet you personally when you arrive."

The hologram faded, and Circe slumped back. The day had been tough, but everything had worked out just as Ragnorra had planned. Hopefully everything will run like this. She looked out the window. They weren't near the ocean yet, but soon they would be. The waves would probably be nice and relaxing before the island. Before home.