Hi, thereal13thfirewolf has graciously allowed me to finish her wonderful story. As per my tradition, this chapter is a compilation of all her chapters. The next chapter will begin my story.
I don't own the show or this story.
Killing it is not an option," Holiday's voice said in Six's ear piece, "I need to study it. We need to know how this one turned after the cure."
"Noted," Six replied before turning to Rex. "We're bringing it in," he said.
"Got it, punch it until it passes out," Rex said building his smack hands and charging at the EVO, a large, scaly, green, doglike beast with a tail like a scorpion's. Only instead of a stinger there was a hole on the end.
Rex jumped as he neared the EVO, punching its muzzle. The EVO snapped at him, its large canines coming frighteningly close to Rex's face. Six sped past Rex. He jumped and landed neatly on the EVO's nose. The beast shook himself as Six ran up its face and onto its back. He flicked out his katanas, quickly stabbing its shoulder before the beast finally shook him off.
Six landed next to Rex, who seemed happy with the way the battle was going. The EVO, on the other hand, seemed to be done with them. Its tail whipped out at them, slamming the duo into a wall before spraying them with a greenish mist from its tail for good measure. Then it seemed to forget about them completely, continuing its rampage like they had never been there.
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The first thing Six noticed when he opened his eyes was the fact that he had lost his sunglasses. The second thing that he was aware of was the large amount of Providence ships in the sky and the sound of gunfire. The third was that he was lying in a pile of debris. Six sat up. He shook his head, and blinked a few times, trying to clear his head and get used to the bright light of the sun. Something felt off to Six. It took him a moment to understand what it was. His clothes were too big. They were so big on him that when he stood up he had to make a new hole in his belt to tighten it enough to keep his pants from falling down. He stood there, trying to figure it out when something hit him. Where on earth was Rex?
Six felt real panic sweep through him. His breathing raced and his heart hammered against his ribs as he searched, calling Rex's name and scouring the debris.
"What's wrong with you?,"he thought, "just calm down."Normally, calming down was no problem. Normally, Six didn't panic at all. But everything just felt so wrong. A soft cough came from behind a mound of bricks and plaster. Six was over there in a second, and there, unconscious, was a four-year-old Rex.
Six picked the boy up, carefully wrapping him in his red and orange jacket. A window across the street caught Six's eye. It was reflecting a teenager in an oversized green suit holding a toddler covered by a huge t shirt and a too large jacket, and it hit him… that's us.
Six shifted Rex in his arms and brushed some of his hair out of his own face. He reached for his communicator only to find that it wasn't there. He scanned the crowd of Providence soldiers for one man. His eyes caught blond hair and he almost sighed in relief. When Six got to him, he was shouting orders to the others as they struggled to load the now sedated EVO onto a ship. Six couldn't help but notice how much smaller he was. Six hated being small.
"Captain," Six called to the man who barely glanced at him.
"Get out of here, kid. Providence business," he muttered, preoccupied with organizing the troops.
"Captain," Six repeated. The man merely waved him off. Six's fists clenched in anger.
"Captain Callen!" He shouted. Finally the captain looked at him. He stood there for a moment just staring, trying to make sense of what was in front of him,
"Six?" That time Six did sigh in relief.
"Yes, and Rex," he said raising the sleeping toddler so Callen could see him. He laughed loudly.
"You're both so little," he said, reaching out and ruffling Six's hair. Six pulled away.
"What do you think you're doing?" Six asked annoyed.
"Forgot who you were for a minute," he replied, pulling his hand away. He was still laughing. Six huffed softly and turned around walking off towards his jet.
"I was only checking in. We're going back to Providence now," he had only gotten a few steps before someone grabbed the back of his shirt, pulling him back and lifting him off the ground
"And how are you going to get there?" Callen asked.
"Put me down!" Six demanded. "I can fly myself!" Callen continued to laugh.
"Can you even reach the pedals?" he asked. After all, Six was at least half a foot shorter then Rex normally was. "I'll fly you back," he said putting Six down and gently pushing him in the direction of the jet.
Six begrudgingly sat in the co-pilot seat, arranging Rex in his lap and watching the captain, who was sitting inhis seat, preparing to fly his jet. Six slouched in his seat. He had been a teenager for five minutes and he already hated it.
Callen brought his finger to his ear
"Dr. Holiday… Yeah, I got 'em… the effects of the spray?... Oh yeah, you're not gonna believe it."
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Callen's hand was firm on Six's shoulder, as if he was trying to keep Six from running.
"Careful, he's pretty moody," he told Dr. Holiday as Six swatted his hand off his shoulder.
"I'm not moody, I just don't like being treated like a little kid," Six huffed. Holiday just smiled and took Rex from him.
"I'll order you two some clothes that fit while I'm doing the scans," she said, grabbing Six's wrist and dragging him farther into the lab.
After what felt like three thousand scans, they were on the last test, the one where Six told Holiday what he saw in ink blots and Holiday monitored his brain activity.
"When's Rex going to wake up?" he asked.
"Soon. Six, I need you to focus," she told him for what felt like the millionth time. As attentive and patient as Six normally was, he was now distractible and impatient.
"How many blots are left?" he asked.
"This is the last one."
"It looks like ink," he said laying back in his seat and closing his eyes.
"I'm being serious Six. I need you to tell me what you think it looks like."
"Two trees fighting over a dog," he said without opening his eyes.
Holiday sighed and looked over her data. She felt like she was dealing with an actual teenager, and looking at Six's test results that would make sense.
"It looks like that spray didn't just affect your body; it also affected your brain. That's why you're acting so…" Holiday couldn't find a way to finish that sentence. Six came up next to her, looking at all the charts, graphs, and maps of his brain.
"So, I'm acting like a teenager and Rex is going to act like a toddler," he stated.
"Exactly, he's going to be even harder to take care of then he usually is," Holiday looked at Six, who was gazing out over the petting zoo.
"Six?" she asked, he jumped slightly before looking at her.
"I was just thinking," he said, his eyes not meeting hers. He seemed so… small and vulnerable.
"It's going to be ok. I'll send the data to Caesar. If we work together we'll have a cure for you in no time," Holiday said. She brushed Six's bangs out of his face and smiled at him. He met her eyes for a moment as his face turned pink. Then he pulled away quickly looking at his unshod feet and rubbing the back of his neck. He murmured something unintelligible as a harsh bark of laughter exploded behind Six,
"Good luck with the hormones, Green Bean," Bobo snickered. Loud sobs erupted from the examination table where a, now awake, Rex was sitting. Both Bobo and Six flinched. Bobo ran from the lab and Six wished that he could join the EVO chimpanzee.
"I still have to take care of him, don't I?" Six asked. Holiday only smiled.
After ten minutes of trying to calm Rex down to explain what had happened without upsetting him again, (because, dear lord, Six never wanted to hear Rex, or any toddler for that matter, sob ever again) he spent ten additional minutes trying to convince Rex that Holiday was simply too busy to take care of him. Six bought Rex back to their new room, an eight by eight gray cube with two beds and a TV. (They were assigned to a new room so they could be 'discreet' about the whole situation which was fine with Six. The less people knew he had been turned into a teen the better.) He left Rex with his new clothes and took his own into the bathroom to change. He decided within ten seconds that he hated the outfit, which was made up of baggy blue jeans, a black T-shirt, forest green converse, and an army green jacket, similar to Noah's except without the patches and symbols. It looked like something that he might have worn when he was fifteen. But that wasn't a time in his life he would ever want to return to. He had been arrogant and stupid and rebellious; it had nearly gotten him and the people close to him killed.
Six opened the bathroom door to find Rex struggling to get his shirt on. The boy had thankfully been able to get his pants on. But Six knew he would have to assist the boy in getting his shirt on. The former mercenary plucked the shirt off of the EVO.
"Hey! I was putting that on," Rex yelped, jumping up to try to grab the shirt back from Six.
"Really? Because from where I was standing, it looked like you were wrestling with it, and losing, badly," Six joked pulling Rex's arms up, easily slipping the shirt over Rex's head. Rex stared at him wearily.
"I want a DNA test done. I don't think you're Six," Rex said. Six simply rolled his eyes and picked Rex up.
"You're hilarious," Six said dryly, "Now we're going to see your brother. We'll see if he has an estimate for how long we'll be stuck like this."
"Why can't we just ask Holiday?" Rex asked, squirming in Six's arms. He wasn't used to being held and he wasn't entirely sure if he like it or not.
"Holiday will sugar coat it. Your brother will not and stop squirming. You're going to make me drop you," Six replied.
"So you're not going to dump me with him?" Rex asked, sure he had caught Six's true intentions.
"I wouldn't trust your brother with my cell phone, let alone a destructive, accident prone toddler that I get paid to keep alive."
"What! I'm not destructive or accident prone! I haven't even broke anything yet."
"Broken, Rex. Get your grammar right and the keyword there is yet." Six said, feeling slightly relieved that he had reached Caesar's lab. He was less pleased, however, when immediately upon the door sliding open he was yanked into the room and pushed onto the table. Rex was ripped from his arms. Monitoring devices were stuck in his face before he could even register what had happened.
"Fascinating," Caesar said typing data into a computer with one hand and holding a startled looking Rex with his other, "the neurological structure of your brain has completely reconfigured itself."
"Well," Six thought peeling off the little devices, "at least he hasn't mentioned my height."
"Also, you are much shorter than I expected."
Six visibly deflated; he really, really hated being short. Rex snickered.
"Rex and I came down because we wanted to get an estimate on how long we're going to be like this," Six told the Hispanic man.
"I think he wants to leave me with you," Rex stage whispered. Caesar smiled at the child.
"Ah, mijo, I would love to take care of you, but I have so much work to do. Between you two and the EVO, I'll be busy all day. To answer your question, it's hard to say this early exactly how long it will take to get the two of you back to normal. But I'd say… maybe two months," he said this in a casual tone that didn't match his words.
"Two months?" Six asked. He was very careful to keep a monotone voice. But, unfortunately, his voice cracked at that moment, causing Rex to snicker again and Caesar to full out laugh.
"Yes, barring any unforeseen setbacks, of course. We haven't gotten a chance to get a good look at the mist that reversed your age, so I could be wrong. It might take more or less time." Caesar said before reaching out and ruffling Six's hair.
"Oh, your hair is very soft. What kind of shampoo do you use?" Caesar asked. Six pulled away and fixed his hair. He then took Rex back from the strange, if not crazy, scientist.
"Well, thank you for your, uh help. We'll just be going now," Six said. He slipped into the hall and leaned against the wall. "Your brother is insane," Six murmured. Rex simply shrugged.
I swear I will cut the hand off the next person who touches my hair," Six said as he set Rex down on one of the beds and practically fell into the other. He kicked off his shoes and curled up under the covers.
"What are you doing?" Rex asked.
"Taking a nap. Today has been exhausting." Six replied.
"But what am I supposed to do?" He whined.
"Figure it out," Six said burying his face in his pillow.
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Rex sat there for a grand total of five minutes before deciding that Six was asleep and wandering over to the door. Rex pressed his little hands against the cold door and willed it to open. Nothing, not even a little hum from his nanites. He tried again. Still nothing. The toddler took a step away from the door.
"Come on Rex you can do this."he told himself, "You've been doing this for years." How had he done this when he was first learning? He would focus on the nanites first. Right. Rex closed his eyes and focused on communicating with his nanites. He began to feel the humming of nanites. Rex pressed his hands against the door once again focusing only on his nanites and the door. Finally, the door hissed open. Rex glanced back at Six just to be sure he was still asleep, then darted out the door
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Six buried his head further into his pillow as his alarm clock beeped. He contemplated if five extra minutes of sleep was really worth the extra laps One would give him when he was late. He came to the conclusion that it was totally worth it as he reached out to hit the snooze button on his alarm clock, only to find nothing there. Six finally lifted his head to find that he wasn't in his room. About a thousand different possibilities ran through his mind before he realized that he was in Providence, where he lived, without One, or any of the other Numbers. He also realized that the beeping that he was hearing was his new communicator.
"Yeah," he said into the com.
"I need you and Rex to come down to the lab," Holiday said.
"Uh… yeah we'll… we'll be there in a minute," Six said, still half asleep and unaware to the fact that Rex was nowhere to be found. He flopped back down on the bed.
"Rex, Dr. Holiday wants us," he called only to be greeted with silence.
"Rex?" He called sitting up and looking around the room only to find that Rex was not there.
"Holiday is going to kill me."
Rex wandered through the halls of Providence, mostly marveling at how big everything was. Rex was careful to stay out of the busier halls but he did receive strange looks from the few agents that he passed.
Rex grinned as he reached his destination. The door opened more easily this time and Rex was permitted access to his room.
"Hey Bobo!" He called to the chimp, who seemed to wince slightly, "what'cha doin'?"
"Reading, ain't you supposed to be with Six?" Bobo replied. The primate was in no way happy that Rex had returned to the room. It wasn't that he didn't like the kid. It was just that he didn't like, well, kids in general. Anyway, he had been looking forward to some time on his own to do what he wanted.
"He's sleeping, but that doesn't matter. Hey, do you wanna do something? We could…," Bobo honestly didn't hear a word the kid said after that.
"Hey, kid," Bobo said. He then sighed and tried to look as pained as possible, "I know you had your heart set on hanging out with me or whatever, but I don't really do kids, ya know? Just got some bad experiences. Nothing to do with you."
"Oh," Rex said looking at his feet with a heart-broken face. He turned slowly and dragged his feet. When he got to the door, he looked back at Bobo hopefully. When it became clear that Bobo wasn't going to change his mind, he left.
"I'll have to work on that," Rex said softly to himself once he was on the other side of the door.
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Six hurried through the halls of Providence; his mind focused on one place. He charged into the room, lecture on the tip of his tongue, only to find that Rex wasn't there. But the monkey was.
"Where is he?" Six asked pressing one of his blades to the chimpanzee's throat.
"Whoa there green bean, I don't know what you're talking about," he said holding up his hairy hands.
"Rex, Bobo, where is Rex?" Six clarified, rolling his unshaded eyes (Dr. Holiday had confiscated all his glasses, too suspicious.)
"And what do I get if I tell you," Bobo bargained. Six pressed his blade closer to his jugular to demonstrate.
"Ok, ok, he was in here like an hour ago."
An hour! Man, how long had he been asleep?
"Well then, I guess I'll be going now," he said, trying to keep his signature calm demeanor. He then slid his katana back into his sleeve and walked out of the room. As soon as the door closed behind him, he leaned against the wall and groaned into his hands.
This ends thereal13thfirewolf's writing. Next is mine.